When You Meet Your Match
by pathogenicmicroorganism
Summary: CHAPTER NINETEEN UP! Tasuki gets to meet his match, and he's not that happy about it ... yet. TasukiOC
1. Their very very first meeting

**All disclaimers apply! Review please, merci, gracias, salamat, arigatou! **

**When You Meet Your Match**

Chapter 1

All her instincts told her to run.

She ran and ran, limping every now and then a sack held tightly in her hand and a knife in the other. She winced through the pain, but she couldn't stop, she _had _to run.

It didn't help that she was bleeding waist down either.

Mayumi struggled to run through the forest, and though it was daytime, and the sun was brightly shining on top of the trees, her eyes were blurry and she couldn't see properly, probably because of the pain. Once or twice, she actually collided head on to a tree.

She grumbled steadily as she ran. How can she have not seen that man as she grabbed that sack of money? She had never been caught before, much less attacked by the ones who caught her, but she smirked all the same. At least she got the guy too.

She could still hear footsteps run after her, but they were getting fainter. She turned every now and then in the hope that she would lose them in the way and she made sure not to use any of the beaten tracks and only stepped on the forest floor full of scattered leaves, making sure that her footprints wouldn't give her away.

She found herself staring at the lake, and making sure that she hadn't heard any approaching footsteps. After convinvcing herself that no one was coming, she collapsed by the lake, and dipped her face into the water. The coolness of the water felt good on her face and afterwards, dipped her whole body into it, the wounds on her thighs sting at the first second, and gradually the coolness of the water numbed it away.

It took her a long time to clean her wounds and it was difficult to stop the bleeding. In fact, it still hadn't stopped. She must have lost a lot of blood during her running, and she was feeling pale and dizzy. She needed blood and needed it fast, but where can she get it? There's no one around for miles!

"So," she smirked as she stared at her reflection in the lake, "this is how I'm gonna die then? Blood loss?"

SHe often found it remarkable that ehr life would be like this. She hasn't always dreamed of becoming a bandit, in fact it was the last thing on his mind. She didn't look the part either. Blessed with beautiful long wavy black hair and a naturally fair pace, that is increasingly becoming pale by the second, and fierce bright blue eyes, she had the beauty that men all over the country sought after, the wit and intelligence that can take her anywhere and the courage and strength of the best of the country's warriors.

Yes, she was perfect

Then her parents died, and then the rest of the family stole everything from her, and she was forced to live out on the streets while her greedy aunt and uncle lavished themselves in the luxury that is supposed to be hers.

That was three years ago. She is nineteen and has vowed revenge against them, and for everything they have done to her. Unfortunately the thought of her aunt and uncle sends a fiery rage to her body that the bleeding began again, this time more profusely.

She froze. She heard footsteps. They found her, but she couldn't start running again. It hurt too much. She lied by the lake, and waited for them to find her. While she waited, she lost consciousness.

She couldn't help it.

She couldn't run any longer.

* * *

"Hey, Genrou," said Kouji, stopping, "did you hear that?" 

Genrou, or Tasuki, nodded and slowly, he and Kouji walked up to the lake. He heard someone fall, and wanted to investigate. After all, this is their turf, and if any nosey people started to come up here, they were sure to find themselves destroyed in a matter of seconds.

He found the cause of the fall immediately. At the other side of the lake, there was a figure lying there, stock still, like it was dead.

"I think it's a girl, Genrou," said Kouji excitedly.

"Hn." said Tasuki. He never cared for any girl, not after what he had to deal with with his family, they were more than enough, thank you very much.

Kouji had already started to walk towards the figure. As they drew closer, they found that it was a girl, and the first thing that Tasuki saw was her thighs. "She's bleeding."

There was a steady pool of blood sorrounding her, staining most of her clothes. In her hand, she clutched a sack. Tasuki kneeled down and reached for it, thinking that it maybe something to his advantage, and sure enough, when he felt it, he felt a lot of coins.

"Money!" he cried, his eyes spearkling.

"We have an injured girl here, and all you think about is the money that she's got?" cried Kouji incredulously.

"Of course not!" cried Tasuki. "She's got a pretty necklace too." He went to pry the money sack out of the girl's hand, but as he grabbed it, he felt the grip of the girl tighten on the bag and saw her face look quite angry.

"You know, Genrou," said Kouji, "she's quite a pretty girl."

"Like I care," grumbled Tasuki. He did see that she was pretty, and with a great set of legs too, but right now, he wanted her money.

"Her injury's getting worse," said Kouji, looking quite worried, and turned to Tasuki, "Do you think -"

He stopped because Tasuki was forcefully trying to pry the money out of the girl's hand, ready to take the girl's arm out in the process.

"WILL YOU STOP THINKING ABOUT TAKING THE MONEY FOR ONCE!"

Tasuki scratched the back of his head and held up a piece sign, with a silly look in his face. "Sorry, hehe." he said, "Maybe we should take her back to our place, and let someone heal her there."

Kouji nodded and lifted the girl in his arms. They were bandits, yes, but they were not heartless. Both Kouji and Tasuki both thought that like them, the girl too was a bandit and had gotten caught and had to run. Tasuki was quite amazed that assuming that she had come from the village, she was able to run all the way here with an injury like that. Besides, if they do nothing, it would drive them into guilt anyway.

"Whatcha got there, Kouji!" asked one of their companions as they approached their camp. "Someone we could play with?"

Tasuki glared at the speaker, and he promptly shut up. "She's injured. Someone has to tend for her - PROPERLY!" she shouted the last word since many of his companions were already lining up to carry her like some rag doll. Tasuki noticed that Kouji's clothes were stained. "She needs medical attention right now!"

Luckily for bandits, they have their own doctor and in next to no time, the girl was in a tent, her wounds clean and bandaged and she was sleeping soundly in there, as Tasuki came in to check up on her. He had this task because Kouji mumbled something about cleaning his clothes after it's been covered with blood.

"The bleeding's stopped," he said to himself, looking at the girl's leg. He smirked as he saw that the money bag was still firmly held in her hand, and she slept like there was no tomorrow. "Kouji was right," he whispered, "you are very pretty."

And with that, he left.


	2. Their First Meeting awake

**When You Meet Your Match**

**Chapter Two**

When Mayumi woke up, the sun was beating down on the tent, and she heard people outside, talking and laughing. By the sound of it, she was certain that all of them were men, and to her horror, she thought that some of them sounded drunk.

She was about to stand up when she noticed her wound. It had bandages on it. Clean white bandages, wrapped around her leg. Someone had the decency in this mountain to clean her wound for her. This time she wondered. How long had she been asleep? Who were the people outside this tent?

She looked around. Her money bag was still there and beside it her knife and other weapons. She grabbed these and wrapped it around her other, uninjured leg and took a deep breath. SHe ran her hand through her hair once and walked out of the tent.

The effect was immediate. The men stopped talking and all turned to look at her, more curiously that she would have hoped. Some have smirks on their faces, other only looked curious and others, to her horror, was looking at her up and down, and eyeing her leg, that was quite seen because of the slit in her clothes.

"Er..." she started, "I need to see who's in charge here." she said, sounding braver than she really felt.

"I'm In charge here," cried a voice behind her. She turned around and saw, well, another man, a smirk in his face, his fangs showing, and her orange hair reflecting the sun. "You need to see me?"

"Yes," she said, and gulped. "Who are you?"

"Ha,"the guy said, "I should be asking you that question."

"I just want to know your name," she retaliated, arms crossed across her chest.

"I'll tell you my name," he said, "if you tell me yours first. After all, you're the one in our turf, and you're not even a guest."

"Fine," she said, not wanting to get into an argument with the leader of what looked like a bunch of bandits. "My name is Mayumi."

"Mayumi what?"

"Mayumi." she said, "That's it, just Mayumi."

The boy raised an eyebrow.

"What's your name?"

"My friends call me Genrou." he said, "but you can call me Tasuki."

"Fine, whatever." said Mayumi then looked at her leg. "Who cleaned my wounds?"

"Oh, that would be Enri right there." said Tasuki, looking behind her and pointing at a boy. Mayumi turned and looked at the boy, who was grinning proudly.

Mayumi smiled in his direction. "Thank you very much."

Enri's grin grew even more broad. "You know, you can thank me better in the tent..."

Several of his companions laughed, and Mayumi's smile was wiped off from her face to be replaced by a scowl and a glare. She wanted to take one of her knives and stick it to the guy's chest, but she didn't want to be killed by the rest of them.

"That's enough," cried another voice. Mayumi turned and the speaker was next to Tasuki. "Is that any way to treat a lady?"

The boy had a nice smile with blue hair and a scar in his left cheek. He smiled warmly at Mayumi. "I'm Kouji." he said, "Tasuki and I found you at the lake."

"Oh," she said, not sure whether this guy was being genuinely being friendly or not, "Right."

"What?" said Kouji, pouting a little, "No thank you?"

"If you want me to go to your tent as well then you might as well keel over and die," she said bluntly, her arms once again across her chest. It would be best if she didn't let her guard down.

"Is that any way to speak to your rescuers?" said Tasuki, frowning.

"I never asked any of you to save me.," said Mayumi, "And I don't see what you did in any of this. A doctor cleaned my wounds. Kouji found me, and what about you? What's your contribution?"

"I let you in here!" cried Tasuki, looking angry, "If it weren't for me, you'd still be by the lake dying! Believe me I have no intention with getting involved with you whatsoever! I hate girls!"

"Some leader you are," said Mayumi. "If you don't want to have anything to do with me, then why did you let Kouji here take me to here and have me healed?"

"He didn't say that, I did!"

"Ah," said Mayumi looking triumphant, "so you do care."

"I - I -" Tasuki stuttered as he looked at Kouji who had an amused smile in his face. "Well, if it weren't for me then you'd be dead by now!"

Mayumi stayed silent.

"So this is the thanks I get for saving your life? You act all high and mighty like some princess ready to tread in here like you own the place! I don't think so! I am the leader, and what I say goes! If you think that you can just take over here like some wannabe bandit that you are, then you have another thing coming!"

Tasuki stalked over leaving a fiery rage behind him. Mayumi saw a great fire at a distance and wondered if that was coming from Tasuki.

However, Mayumi was smirking. "Strange," she said, "I didn't hear him say I couldn't stay..."

Tasuki must have heard. "God I hate women!"


	3. At the lake

Whe you meet your match

Chapter Three

Tasuki grumbled all the way to the lake where he and Kouji found that god forsaken girl. No girl outside his family has ever treated him like this, largely because he hadn't come near any other girl apart from the ones in his family, but still, he was already a grown up strong man with the power to manipulate fire, he shouldn't be talked that way by any girl!

Tasuli found it strange, he let the girl almost push him around like that. Normally at that type of situation, he would be shouting at the girl until the end of eternity, with flames raging in the background as the girl cowered in fear of his face and voice and then proceeded to worship him and the ground that he walks on from then on.

At least, that would be what's happening in his mind. But the things that happen in your mind often don't happen in the real world anyway.

He went back to the place he and Kouji found Mayumi. The grass still had some blood stains in them and there were flies nearby. He moved away, all the way across the other side of the lake and sat there to grumble some more.

He wondered what would happen if they decided to leave the girl. There would be no witty remarks today for instance, but then he thought that the guilt of leaving someone dying there would probably eat him up and he would feel even more guilty after returning to find that she's dead. He would never be able to live it down.

Keeping her alive meant that there would be an extra mouth to feed, and her wounds to tend to. He saw those wounds, they were not pretty and would leave a lasting scar to her thighs. Pity, he thought that she had very sexy thighs too...

Tasuki shook his head and forced the thought of Mayumi's thighs out of his mind. Why was he thinking about those anyway? She's just a girl, like she's of any importance. What he should really be thinking about is the money that she's got, now that could take him places.

He was thinking about the many ways that he could take the money away from Mayumi when he heard rustling behind him. He held his giant fan beside him and stood, ready for any attack. He was about to attack, when -

"Peace!" a feminine voice cried and shoved in his face was a hand with two of the fingers up, holding the peace sign. It was so close to his face that he was starting to get cross-eyed.

Mayumi held her hand down and she smiled prettily at him. Tasuki looked at her, and thought that she looked unusually cheerful. "Hi, Tasuki!" she greeted very very cheerfully, as if she forgot the fact that he wanted to rip her to pieces an hour ago.

"Hn." he said, not questioning it and instead looked out into the lake. "Is anyone with you?"

Mayumi sat down next to him and shook her head, her black hair bouncing after her. "Nope," she said, "just me. Kouji wanted to come with me, but I told him I'd find my way here, eventually." She smiled again.

"You got lost?"

"Nope," she said, rather proudly. "I'm quite surprised myself. I really thought that it'll take a while for me to get here and thought that once I do, you'd be gone, but surprise, surprise."

She smiled again.

Tasuki raised an eyebrow at her. "You like smiling a lot, don't you?"

"I guess so," she said, "one of the guys gave me this medicine because I said that my leg hurts and they told me to take it and after that I'm all happy and the pain's gone."

"Those no good sons of a jackal," grumbled Tasuki darkly, "they drugged you."

"But I'm happy," cried Mayumi, leaning on Tasuki's shoulder. Tasuki resisted the urge to peel himself away from her, "I couldn't have been drugged, I feel fine."

Tasuki grumbled again. "Those frigging idiots," he said, "how's your leg?"

"It doesn't hurt anymore, I told you," she said, "thanks to those wonderful medicine!"

Tasuki looked at Mayumi. She had a lopsided grin and her eyes were looking at him though they were unfocused. She was swaying to and fro and Tasuki had to hold her to make her stop falling.

"How do you feel?" he asked.

"Dizzy," she said, blinking a few times, "but I came here for a reason."

Tasuki looked at her again. "And what's that?"

"I came here because I want you to know that I appreciate the rescue," she said, "I think I would've died if you didn't find me."

Tasuki smirked. "I _know_ that you would've died if I didn't find you."

Mayumi nodded and smiled again. "Right," she said, "and as a thank you, I want you to have that money bag that I have in the tent. I even had a very weird dream about that money bag, someone was trying to pry it off my hands a little while ago..."

Tasuki smirked and looked at the lake. Wow, so taking that money was easier than he originally thought. "So you're sure that I can have it?"

Mayumi nodded. "Absolutely," she said. "But don't take my necklace away, it's very special."

Tasuki looked at the necklace. It had a pendant of a man's name in it: Akira. "Boyfriend?" he asked, quite stiffly as he glared at the pendant.

"No," she said, "he's my brother, he died a long time ago, just before he gave me this. He had his own necklace with my name on it, but I don't know where he kept it."

Tasuki thought that hearing Mayumi's story would be very interesting, but this was not the time. "Is that all you have to say?"

"No," said Mayumi, grinning. "I think you're very pretty."

Tasuki sat in stunned silence.

"If you were a girl you'd be very pretty."

He couldn't move.

"But even if you're still a guy you're still very pretty."

He just couldn't do it.

And before he knew it, Mayumi had collapsed into his arms, and was fast asleep.

It took about an hour for Tasuki to get over the fact that a girl thinks of him as pretty. He was raging inside. Why could it not have been handsome? Or even good looking? Why pretty? Of all the words that can be used to describe what she thinks of his face, why the hell did she choose pretty?

Mayumi was pretty, that much he had accepted, but how can she think that he was? True, he wasn't bad looking if he does say so himself, but why use that word? He glared at Mayumi, who was sleeping soundly in his lap, without so much care as to what he was thinking of inside.

"Arg, why am I letting this girl get to me like this? She's just a stupid girl!" But try as he might, he couldn't bring himself to remove her head from his laugh. He actually succeeded once, only to feel guilty and let her rest in his lap again.

It was well after sunset and the stars have been illuminating the earth for quite some time, when Tasuki decided to carry a soundly sleeping Mayumi back into the camp. When he got back there, he hunted down whoever thought it was a good idea to drug the girl.


	4. kouji and mayumi's talk

When You Meet Your Match

Chapter Four

It took Mayumi a week to get used to hanging around with a bunch of bandits. Strangely enough, they treated her freely, almost as if one of the guys, but Mayumi has learned from the first day she got there never to take anything that looks suspicious from them. She had already learned, after they drugged her into sillinessthat made her wake up dizzy and disoriented.

Most of them were treating her like they would treat each other. At the beginning, many of them were hitting on her, and Mayumi thought that they've been deprived of the female attention for a very long time, so she tolerated it. Ignored it mostly, but in a tolerable way. But there came a time when one of them actually started feeling up her leg, and quick as a flash, she produced her knife and pointed its end on the guy's neck.

"Do that ever again, and I'll stick this up your throat."

After that, no one even dared to hit on her ever again.

"What about Kouji?" she heard one of the guys mumble to one another, while glaring slightly at them. "_She_ never stops _him_."

True, Kouji did tease her to no end, practically every hour ofeveryday. It had beendeveloping as one of Kouji favorite habits as of late.But they both knew that their relationship was completely platonic. Kouji reminded Mayumi a lot of her brother, always teasing her, and annoying her to no end. He even messes up her hair in the same way. It was bittersweet, she missed her brother terribly the most and having Kouji around her made her heart ache for her brother.

She was sitting by her tent, alone, playing with her necklace, feeling the familiar letters, when -

"Missing him?"

Mayumi looked up and there stood Kouji in front of him, a soft grin in his face looking at her necklace.

"Yeah, I miss my brother."

"I wasn't talking about your brother," said Kouji, raising an eyebrow at her.

"Who were you talking about then?" she asked rather curiously.

"Tasuki, of course!"

Mayumi scoffed and raised an eyebrow at Kouji, looking quite incredulous. "You're kidding right?"

Kouji shrugged.

Mayumi shook her head. For the past few days all Mayumi and Tasuki have been doing was shouting at each other. Their fights have been well documented by the entire group and many stay to sit and watch. Somehow, they find the shouting of their group leader to a young girl and vice versa was quite the entertainment.

"If you think that I miss fighting with Tasuki, then you've got another thing coming." said Mayumi. "Where is he anyway?"

Kouji smiled. "So you do miss him."

"I do not miss him," dismissed Mayumi, "is it so wrong to ask where he got his big old body to?"

"Tasuki likes doing solo jobs. Mostly to think about stuff without having anyone interrupt him," Kouji grinned slyly. "Maybe he's even thinking about you."

Mayumi bowed down to hide her face, because it was starting to warm up. "I hardly think that's possible."

"Yet you like the idea." answered Kouji slyly, sitting beside her and nudging her in her shoulder.

Mayumi glared at Kouji who was grinning knowingly. "Shut up!" she cried and hit him in the head.

"Hey, that hurt!" said Kouji rubbing his head fiercely. "I just thought that you like the fact that Tasuki might actually start liking a girl for once."

"What do I care that he doesn't like girls?" said Mayumi,as shelooked coyly at Kouji, "For all we know he might actually have something in it for you Kouji." She raised her eyebrows.

Kouji pulled a disgusted face. "I happen to know that he's straight." he said firmly. "He just doesn't care for women as most men."

Mayumi shrugged and looked at the necklace again. "In any case I really don't care anyway," she said.

"But it would be better if he starts liking you,"

Mayumi looked at him. He was obviously hoping that he would see her trip up in their conversation, but she was smarter than that. "I told you, I don't care. At least he tolerates me, and that's more than enough."

Kouji shrugged, giving up andlooked at the necklace. "Who's Akira?"

At this, Mayumi's face formed a fond expression and her smile became immensely soft and her eyes were sparkling. Kouji tried to hide the expression in his face as he thought about how she managed to form such a beautiful face in a second. "Akira's my brother," she said, "he's the best big brother in the whole wide world."

Kouji smiled, and thought that Mayumi sounded like such an innocent child. "He's the best guy you could ask for. Helpful, loving, he protects me and took care of me when my parents weren't around. I tell him everything and he tells me everything too. We don't have secrets from each other."

"Sounds like a great guy," said Kouji, "so where is he?"

At this, Mayumi looked saddened and looked and played with the necklace again. "He died a long time ago."

"Oh, I'm sorry." he did look rather sorry.

Mayumi shook her head and smiled at him. "Don't worry about it," she said, "It happened a long time ago and he was smiling when he died."

"How-"

"Murder." said Mayumi simply, and said nothing on the matter. A minute later she turned to Kouji and smiled at him. "He looks quite a lot like you actually, only he's got light brown hair. And he acts a lot like you too., funny and teasing." she smiled. "And rather annoying too."

Kouji smiled. "I'm sure that he's happy you're okay."

Mayumi nodded. "But I do miss terribly." she said, hugging the necklace to her heart. "I dream about him all the time, and he keeps telling me we can't see each other yet, and it'll be a long time til we see each other again. And I keep waking up crying, he says he's happy and he says I will be soon too and-"

Mayumi blushed. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't be telling you this," she said, "it's just that you look so much like my brother, and I tell him everything -"

Kouji waved it off. "It's okay, you can tell me, I won't tell anybody, it's interesting actually, and all you say will be our little secret." He smiled. "I promise. From now on, I can be your new big brother."

Mayumi looked at him, and then smiled. "Thanks Kouji," she said.

Kouji smiled and looked at her, but his attention was cut short when over her shoulder he saw Tasuki glaring at him.


	5. a fight to watch

When You Meet Your Match

Chapter Five

Kouji assured Tasuki that whatever he saw between him and Mayumi was completely platonic.

"Come on, Genrou," he said, laughing slightly, "Do you really think that I would go after your girl?"

At this Tasuki tried to whack him in the head with the fan, but Kouji was able to duck and miss the offending object. When he got back up, Tasuki was glaring at him. "Whoever said that that Mayumi is my girl?"

"Then why are you acting like it?"

Tasuki looked at him disbelievingly. He's got to be out of it."Are you kidding with me?" he asked incredolously."The girl hates my guts, we shout at each other every time that I'm here, she doesn't tolerate me in her own little world and you think that I would start having feelings for a girl like that?"

Kouji crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow at him. "Well do you?"

"NO!" he shouted indignantly. "Haven't you known me? I hate all girls! And especially girls like Mayumi who go out of their way to frigging annoy me all the time and think that it's frigging amusing to have shouting matches every goddamned night of the week!"

Kouji backed away slightly. He knew it was only a matter of time before flames of fire start forming all around them. It was hardly everyday that Tasuki gets enraged like this. "Relax Genrou," said Kouji, "I wasn't trying to get you to admit that you like her!"

Tasuki pouted at him. "Yes you were."

Kouji shook his head. Sometimes, he is so immature. "Ok so maybe I were." he said, owning up to it and making Tasuki's pout increase four fold. "But you've got to admit that she's not like the rest of the girls back there, all prissy and arrogant."

Tasuki thought about it and looked at the camp, where Mayumi was smiling at a group of people who were showing her a card trick. She clapped along when she was revealed the trick and laughed heartily with them. "Well, I guess I could give her that..."

"Exactly," said Kouji, "trust me man, she's just like one of the guys, only you can do it with her."

Tasuki glared at him. "Why? Are you planning to?"

Koiji looked at him. "Are you?" he challenged, leaning in slightly for his answer.

Tasuki cursed inwardly. He got him there and turned away from his friend. When he turned back Kouji was looking shocked. "You are!"

Tasuki shook his head fiercely. "No of course not!"

But him blushing gave him away.

"YOU ARE!" Kouji practically shouted, his eyes wide, wider than normal, wide anime-style. Tasuki tackled him so hard that they both fell on the ground. When this happened, Kouji shouted, "Don't Genrou! I don't bend that way!"

This confused Tasuki and he stood up. "What?"

Kouji looked at Mayumi and looked guiltily at Tasuki. "Er, never mind."

"What is it Kouji?" he couldn't help it, he was intrigued.

"Nothing," insisted Kouji, "it's between me and Mayumi, it doesn't concern you."

Tasuki had known Kouji for a very long time now, and being that as it may it had a lot of benefits. For instance, he knew, just by looking at Kouji, if he's lying or not. He would look at his hands and sway back and forth whenever he was lying.

This is exactly what he was doing right now.

"You're lying to me, Kouji," said Tasuki, raising an eyebrow at him. "You said you and Mayumi were talking about me a while ago, and if it's got something to do with me, then you might as well tell me now."

Kouji looked at him. "But I promised Mayumi I wouldn't tell anyone." he said.

"Tell me now!" said Tasuki, threatening the giant fan on him.

"All right, all right," said Kouji, raising both his arms, and he told him.

After he told him, Tasuki's eyes grew wide and then narrow with anger. He turned to Mayumi who was still laughing at the card tricks of the rest of the bandits, and he made a beeline in her direction. When he was seen by the bandits they grew quiet, and Mayumi looked at him curiously.

He grabbed Mayumi's arm and made her stand up. "Hey! What was that for?" cried Mayumi, massaging her arm.

"What you said was uncalled for!" cried Tasuki, his face very very close to her own. She could practically see the fire rage in his eyes.

"What? What did I say!" she was genuinely confused.

"You know what you said to Kouji! Don't try denying it!"

Mayumi looked at Kouji who looked apologetic. "I told Kouji a lot of things! But I don't know what you're talking about!"

"Don't deny it!"

"What the hell did I-"

"I AM NOT GAY!"

Comprehension dawned upon Mayumi's face as she looked at Tasuki's enraged face. "Oh..."

If it weren't such a tense situation, then the rest of the bandits would be laughing their hearts out right now.

"How dare you accuse me of being gay! I am the leader of a notorious and dangerous group of bandits! I have no problem killing you or anyone else for that matter!"

"I never said that you weren't a strong leader! You told me that you didn't like girls, so that just leaves -" she was looking on the ground and then back at him with a small smile in his face, a smile that wasn't returned by Tasuki, who was still looking like he's just been offended by the rest of the world.

"Just because I don't like girls doesn't mean that I'm gay!" shouted Tasuki, who was shaking with anger now. "I have half a mind to kick you out -"

"Then why don't you?" challenged Mayumi. "You're such a big strong man, it'll be easy to throw me out into the forest."

Tasuki wanted to do it, he really did, but Kouji was already holding him back from doing anything drastic. He thought that he wasn't the only one who actually cared for the girl, not that anyone knows that he actually cares for the girl.

But that didn't cross his mind right now. Right now at this moment, all he wanted to do was to throttle Mayumi.

"You know what? You're so narrow minded!"

"Ha! Is that the best that you've got?"

"Just because I don't pick fights with girls -"

"You fight with me all the time!"

"That's because you're not a normal girl!"

"Well if the basis of a good man is normality then you're not included in that list!"

"I don't care!"

"What makes you think that I care that you care!"

Silence stood for ten seconds.

"I don't like you."

"Who says I like you?"

"I don't even care for you."

"Who says I care that you care?"

'I could have you thrown out of the forest right now."

"I'd like to see you try."

They glared at each other for a whole minute.

"I hate you."

"I hate you more."

"I hate you first."

"Time out!" cried Kouji, who looked quite amused. They both glared at him. No doubt they thought he was the responsible one for this entire scenario. "Break it up you two, that's enough."

Mayumi gave a final death glare to Tasuki before gracefully turning and going back inside her tent.

Tasuki glared at the tent. "I hate that girl."

Kouji nodded. "Keep telling yourself that Genrou, and you might just convince yourself."


	6. play fighting can lead to many things

When You Meet Your Match

Chapter Six

For the next few days Tasuki and Mayumi all did was glare at each other. After their last blow out where they declared their hate for each other, they have acted stiffly around each other, talking in short crisp sentences and staying away from each other when they're not in the mood because everyone knows that if that happened another blow out is definite to happen.

Mayumi figured, after a full minute of staring at the back of Tasuki's- as she calls it -big ugly head (that somehow manages to look real good during sunset, she didn't know why), that maybe she should apologize, after all if she hadn't said that he was gay, then he wouldn't have gone and shouted at her like that. At first she blamed Kouji, after all, he promised that what she says would stay between the two of them, but she couldn't find it in her heart to stay mad at a man who she regarded as her second brother.

It also helped that Kouji practically sweet talked her into not getting mad at him, he did so by food, flowers and the charm in him that Mayumi swore in his face she didn't see. Tasuki did none of that whatsoever and only scoffed when he saw Kouji and Mayumi talking, causing Mayumi to glare at him loathingly and decide to not apologize after all. Not right now, at least.

Mayumi had borrowed a sword from one of the bandits and was examining it in an open field. It had been a long time since she held a sword. She didn't bring one because the swords in their house were too big and bulky, and would slow her down. After all, she was only sixteen when she was forced out of the house, she barely had time to bring what she brought right now.

She practiced with the sword, remembering all the things that her brother taught her, imagining that he was there, shouting out a couple of hints every now and then.

"Fix your stance, Yumi!" she heard him stay in her mind, "You'll be dead in no time if you don't!"

Mayumi smirked, picturing her brother in front of him, and she made a couple of moves imagining trying to hit. In her mind, he jumped all the way behind her. Mayumi turned around and swished the sword again, when it hit something solid.

A big solid fan.

"You're not pretty bad," said Tasuki, looking at the sword, and then at her.

Mayumi put the sword down and looked at him. He didn't bring Kouji with him, and he looked at her intently.

"What do you want?" asked Mayum, placing the sword in between them, a sort of barrier separating them.

Tasuki shrugged. "I was just wondering where you were."

She narrowed her eyes. "Why?" she asked suspiciously.

Tasuki glared. "Why not?" he said.

"Well you must have a reason for coming here," said Mayumi, "we're not exactly the best of friends after all."

Tasuki nodded. "Well actually, Kouji asked me to look for you."

Mayumi blinked. "Why?"

"Why the hell do you always ask why?"

"Well why shouldn't I?"

They glared at each other for a few second before Mayumi blinked.

Tasuki smirked down at her.

"Actually," said Mayumi, "I'm glad - well not really, just okay so you're here. Great.I wanted to apologize."

Tasuki looked at her, listening.

"I don't really think that you're gay, and I shouldn't have said so."

With this Tasuki smirked again and revealed his own sword. "Care to duel?"

Mayumi looked at him. "So you're not mad anymore?"

Tasuki shook his head. "Just don't let it happen again," he said, pointing the sword at her. "Now fight, woman."

Mayumi smiled and they fought. She thought that he was pretty good considering that she thought all he could do was shoot flames out of the fan. He kept her on her toes, never at the same place for more than a few seconds. He was very skilled at the sword, and constantly smirked when his sword got to close to her.

He did hit her, her clothes at least. He had managed to tore away part of the sleeve on her clothes and her pants, revealing her healing wound. But Mayumi didn't care, as long as her skin was intact, she had no problem with it.

Tasuki had managed to back her into a large tree and with that he threw away her sword, all the way into the other side of the open field.

She was backed against the tree, his sword dangerously placed in her neck as he drew closer that smirk still in his face.

They were barely a few inches apart, their noses almost touching. Mayumi could smell him, his hair, and the sweat in his forehead. She couldn't help it, she really liked it.

"I guess I won then," he breathed into her looking at her softly in the eye.

Mayumi panted and nodded. He was so close, too close in fact. But she didn't mind, she didn't mind at all.

She felt Tasuki's leg rub on her own, she began to squirm, causing Tauki's smirk to grow even more pronounced. Mayumi tried not to breathe too hard, or at least to make Tasuki not notice what he was doing to her, but when his face is barely an inch away from hers, she found this impossible.

Tasuki had put his sword away from her neck, and threw it away next to her sword. Mayumi breathed a sigh, and she saw that Tasuki was blocking her way out with both his hands pressed in the tree.

"Do you really think that I'm gonna let you get away that easily?" he whispered in her ear, rubbing her leg intentionally with hers.

"Tasuki," she said, but was cut off when she looked into his eyes, telling her to shut up.

"Do you like this?"

"I-I don't know," said Mayumi softly.

He made a move to kiss her, and Mayumi felt that he would too, she wanted him to. She closed her eyes, waiting for his lips press into hers.

"Hey Genrou!"

"Bitch."


	7. drunken sleepiness

When You Meet Your Match

Chapter Seven

Having Mayumi around the camp has been a series of firsts for Tasuki. It was the first time he had seen a girl in what he regarded as his mountain, it was the first time he rescued a girl from certain death, it was the first time he tolerated a girl around his camp, even though they do fight with each other almost every night.

It was also the first time in a very long time that he began to feel attracted to a girl.

There was no denying it, Mayumi was very pretty, especially when she's happy, and right now, she was, laughing at the card tricks that some of his men were performing in front of her. She was easy to talk too, warm and sweet, when they're not fighting, and - he could admit it to himself - he liked fighting with her, it was one of those times when he had her full undivided attention.

It also helped that she was very very beautiful.

Tasuki was standing underneath a big tree, his one leg against the tree while he leaned on it casually. He was surveying her, and his eyes went to her leg, the bandage was now gone and her wound was healing nicely, leaving a large brown scar in her leg. He cursed inwardly. He wasn't supposed to like girls, and he had tried to kick her out every time he and her fought, unfortunately, he couldn't bring himself to do it.

He thought about Mayumi more times than he wanted to, and during those time he wanted to banish those thoughts but found that every time he tried, more and more images appeared in his mind. He didn't know what was making Mayumi so different from other girls, maybe he just hadn't seen one in a very long time, and he forgot to have taste, but then again, Mayumi is pretty.. Kouji said so himself...

"Hey!"

Tasuki was shaken out of his stupor and jumped back into the tree as he saw Mayumi in front of him, her big blue eyes staring curiously at him. He had always liked her eyes. For him that was her best feature, it was easy to drown in her eyes...

"Tasuki!"

"What?" exclaimed Tasuki, finally fully aware of what's in front of him, which was Mayumi glaring slightly at him. "What do you want?"

Mayumi smiled at him. "What are you doing?"

Tasuki stared at her. "What do you think I'm doing!"

Mayumi shrugged. "Staring into space."

"Fine!" said Tasuki, crossing his arms over her chest, "I'm staring into space! Is that so wrong!"

Mayumi shook her head, but continued to look at him.

They silently stared at each other for fifteen seconds. Tasuki could literally hear the crickets chirping behind them.

"What are you doing now?"

Tasuki gaped at her openly. Sometimes, girls can be just...annoying. "What do you care anyway!"

Mayumi shrugged, but she was still smiling. "Is it so wrong?"

"No," said Tasuki, "But you're an idiot."

"I am not!"

"What the hell do you want anyway?"

At this Mayumi grinned wide. "Well," she said slowly, "the guys said that they managed to stole some liquor and they were wondering if - HEY!"

Tasuki pushed her sideways so hard that she fell back slightly. Tasuki wasn't that crazy, liquor was still the most important thing after all, no girl could trump that.

Hmm...maybe he wasn't that out of his mind after all.

Not yet, anyway.

* * *

Tasuki was in his third or fourth shot when Mayumi decided to join him by the bonfire. He was already hiccuping like an idiot and laughing like a maniac.

Mayumi didn't drink. It's not that she hated it, her brother and father drunk all the time way back when, however not as much as Tasuki is doing right now. By the way, his shots mean an entire pint.

She couldn't stop Tasuki from drinking, after all this was his camp and that was his men. She wondered what drove her to actually go to Tasuki and offer him some liquor, maybe she wanted to see him, maybe she wanted to relive what happened two nights ago...

"You're blushing."

Mayumi whipped her head to her right so hard that her hair whipped her face slightly. Kouji was there, grinning at her, a knowing look in his eyes.

She didn't deny it, there was no point after all, she did blushed. Who wouldn't after all? "So?"

"So you don't deny it?" said Kouji, eyebrows raised.

"Why would I deny it?" she countered, only one eyebrow raised. She liked that motion, her brother taught her that.

"Well..." said Kouji, "you've always said that you didn't care about Tasuki."

May.umi's eyebrow raised even higher, this time a smile matched the look. "Whoever said that I was blushing because of Tasuki?"

Kouji looked surprised. "Okay, so it's not Tasuki?"

Mayumi didn't answer and turned to Tasuki who was looking at her, getting more and more drunk by the second. He was grinning at her like a maniac, his eyes unfocused and hiccuping every three seconds.

"Whatchoo tawkin boume?"

Mayumi tried not to laugh, while Kouji had an amused expression in his face. Mayumi wasn't sure whether he was talking to her, or if he just says random things whenever he's drunk. She's never actually seen him drunk before after all, and knows nothing about him.

It was then that she realized that she knew very little about him. She knew he was a bandit, that he has a fan that can produce fire, and that he's the leader of this group. But she didn't even know how he came to be a bandit, among other things.

"Whatchoohabdafwowninurpays?"

Mayumi was pretty sure that he was talking to her. "What?"

Kouji smiled, and it looked like he understand Tasuki perfectly well. "He's asking why you have that frown in your face." he said, then smiled at her, "so he does care about you."

Mayumi rolled her eyes. "Like I care."

"Funny, that's what he said too."

Mayumi rolled her eyes again, and then felt someone tugging at her clothes. She looked down and saw Tasuki tugging on her pants. "Smoooooooth.." he said.

"Oh for goodness sake's, Tasuki," she snapped, pulling the pants away from him, because he was rubbing his face with it. "That's enough liquor for tonight, Tasuki."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes!" cried Mayumi, tugging the pint away from his. He protested with a cry but she ignored that, and put it back in the table. She grabbed one of his arms and pulled on it. Unfortunately he was too strong for her. It took Kouji's help to get him out of the table. They had to, because they knew that keeping Tasuki there would make him even more drunk and then he'll pass out by the fire and Suzaku knows what'll happen to him then.

"Come on, Tasuki," she heaved. "Man, you're heavy."

Kouji seemed to have felt that this was the right time to let go of Tasuki, therefore putting all his weight on her, and since Tasuki weighed more that her, and that she didn't expect that Kouji would let go, they fell.

"Kouji!" she cried, glaring at him slightly. "What the hell was that for!"

Kouji grinned, but said nothing. He raised his eyebrows and walked away, without a single word.

"Come back here!" she said.

Kouji ignored her. She sighed. Well, at least they managed to reach a tree. Somehow, Tasuki managed to sleep in her lap, looking rather comfortable, while she leaned at the tree, away from the fire, but not far enough to feel cold.

"I'm stuck here?" she asked the blissfully unaware Tasuki. She wasn't sleepy, and Tasuki reeked of liquor, which didn't smell at all nice. She just wanted to get out of there, but now all she could do was watch Tasuki drift in and out of consciousness.

He does look nice when he's sleeping, she thought to herself, stroking his hair slightly. How a guy look this good when sleeping suddenly turn into a monster when he's awake was beyond her. She smiled when he responded to her strokes in the forehead. His eyes were opening although they were still slightly unfocused.

"Maymi..." he said softly.

"Shh," she said, "go back to sleep, no wait don't-"

Tasuki was already rising from her lap, but still looking at her. Mayumi willed herself not to flinch, he was still reeking of alcohol, and it was a strong smell too, but he was looking at her, and it seemed rude to flinch in his face.

"Maymi..."

"Er..yes?"

"Idikshatvurbriepmetty.."

Mayumi frowned. "Er..what?"

"Ay..dik...vhab...yufrybrity.." he, er, repeated, more slowly.

Mayumi tutted. She didn't understand, where's Kouji when you need him? She didn't understand drunk!

"Tasuki, I don't know what -"

Then he kissed her.

She didn't know whether she liked it, he still smells of alcohol, and there were still drops of liquor in his lips that she was able to taste. Whatever Tasuki was trying to say was out of her mind, and trying to decipher it was pushed completely out of her mind.

But before she could kiss back, Tasuki suddenly stopped, and then fell into her lap once again, fast asleep.

The taste of both Tasuki's lips and liquor were still on her lips. Maybe it's a good thing Kouji wasn't here after all...


	8. Waking up

When You Meet Your Match

Chapter Eight

Tasuki woke up groggy and moaning. The sun pierced his eyes and he quickly shielded it with his hand. It took him a few minutes to actually open his eyes completely, and when he did, he moaned even louder.

It couldn't be more obvious that he had a hangover and a seriously painful headache. He didn't even remember much of last night, the last thing he remember was sitting down by the fire drinking lots of alcohol, and after that, very little.

He doesn't even know where he is, or how he got wherever here is, for he hasn't removed the hand in his eyes yet, so all he could actually see was the darkness of his palm. After about a minute of thinking of where he might be, he decided to find out by removing the hand from his eyes.

"What the hell!" he cried loudly and rose so fast that his headache seemed to double, and he groaned even louder.

Mayumi was in front of him, still sleeping soundly, unaware of his sudden outburst. His eyes opened wide at what could be the only possible explanation of just what exactly is going on here.

Did he and Mayumi just sleep together?

Tasuki frowned at Mayumi's face. He meant that in the literal sense, of course, but the thought of him sleeping with Mayumi was sending senses in his face. Luckily, no one could see him blush right now. Or the bulge that was forming in his pants.

The thought was good, but he couldn't remember exactly what happened last night. The last thing that he remembered about last night was when Mayumi went up to him and offered him some alcohol, and he readily took it, even shoving her out of the way for it.

Tasuki smirked at her, who was still sleeping. "I probably acted like a drunken fool huh?" he asked her, not expecting an answer.

"A first class fool."

Tasuki turned and there stood Kouji, arms at his waists grinning at him broadly and looking at Mayumi. "Haven't managed to wake her up yet, huh?"

"There's no need for that yet," said Tasuki, glaring at him slightly, "so how did I act last night."

"Like I said," he said, "A first class, grade A unlike no other fool."

"That bad?"

"Well," said Kouji thoughtfully, "she did drag you out from the table to make you stop rubbing your face in her pants."

"WHAT!" he felt her face pale and the bulge in his pants quickly ceased.

Kouji nodded, smiling a little. Mayumi stirred, but didn't wake up. "And then you fell on her fast asleep." he said, "that's why you're underneath this tree here, and that's where you two slept."

Tasuki groaned. The thought of him rubbing his face on her pants was annoying him to no end.

"You don't remember anything do you?"

Tasuki glared at him. "You think?"

"So you don't remember kissing her?"

Kouji had this irritating smirk in his face that grew even more irritating when he saw the look on Tasuki's face. It was a mixture of shock, surprise, and slight embarrassment. "I what!"

Kouji nodded. "Yep," he said, "you kissed her and kissed her good, then you fell asleep."

"I-I did?" his face was quickly getting cold.

"Oh yeah," said Kouji, nodding, "it must have been horrible."

Tasuki glared at him, trying to save the little pride that he had left. "What the hell gives you that idea?" he asked defiantly, arms crossed. "How the hell would you know?"

Kouji raised his arms. "I didn't mean it that way, Genrou," he said, "I just thought that you must have reeked bad. I mean, you still smell of alcohol, even now, and you smelled worse last night."

Tasuki looked at Mayumi.

"The fact that she actually put up with you the entire night smelling like that is amazing."

Tasuki then looked at Kouji, got out his fan, pointed it at a running scared screaming Kouji and shot out fire at him. "Get out of here you annoying son of a-"

But he was interrupted when Mayumi started to moan slightly, her closed eyes twitching slowly awake. Tasuki looked at her, watching her wake up. Tasuki looked at her and thought about what Kouji had told him. He didn't picture his kiss with Mayumi to be when he was drunk, when he pictured that moment, he remembered it.

"Hmm...Tasuki?" said Mayumi, groggily. He thought that he was probably the first thing that she saw today, and he wasn't sure if she felt that that was a good thing.

"Good morning," he said softly, a smile in his face. "Sleep well?"

Mayumi smiled, and nodded, stretching her arms to the side and rubbing her neck. "You?"

Tasuki nodded, and then took a deep breath. "Listen about last night," he began, Mayumi listening to him intently. "Whatever I did to you, good and especially bad, I didn't mean any of it, well at least the bad parts, the good parts we can say I meant, but the bad and horrible parts, I didn't mean to do that to you at all, I mean, I'm sorry I made you sleep in out here under a tree and I didn't mean to sleep in your lap, I'm really didn't mean that -"

Mayumi looked at him, her head tilted to the side, a rather amused smile in her pretty face. He hoped that kissing her was one of the good things that she regarded he did.

"Well, er, I didn't mean it," he finished lamely, not looking at her.

Mayumi looked at him and smiled. "That's okay, Tasuki," she said, "I didn't mind sleeping out here, it was actually kinda nice."

Tasuki looked at her. "Really?"

Mayumi nodded, still smiling. "It was a really cool night, and you're the perfect blanket."

Tasuki smirked, and looked at her curiously.

Mayumi laughed slightly, then suddenly looked at her necklace. Then her hand went to her mouth, as if she just remembered something. "Oh my..."

"What?" asked Tasuki worriedly. This was a sudden change in her attitude. "What? Is there something wrong?"

"What's the date today?" she asked rather sharply.

Tasuki told her.

Mayumi looked at Tasuki, and surprised him with tears in her eyes. "Today..."

"Today's what?" he asked, forced to stand rise as Mayumi, in a daze quickly stood up, still clutching her necklace. "Mayumi! Wait up!"

But Mayumi was already running, again, away from him.

Tasuki sat there, slightly confused. "Was it something I said?"


	9. The real story

When You Meet Your Match

Chapter Nine

No, Tasuki, it wasn't something you said. Mayumi thought, running towards the lake. The lake was become her favorite place fast. It was nice and quiet there, hardly any of the bandits go there when it was nearing the afternoon, so she was sure that no one would disturb her.

Her necklace felt unusually heavy today, as if her thinking about her brother made it heavier than usual. This didn't bother her, in fact, knowing that her brother's presence in the necklace was reassuring to her.

She sighed. Maybe she should tell Tasuki what's going on, after all, he deserves to know why she ran away from him without any reason at all.

"Hey,"

Mayumi turned, her knees tucked around her arms. Tasuki was there, his fan resting in his shoulder, smiling at her a little, but looking a little confused. "Did I say something wrong?"

Mayumi smiled, he still smelled of alcohol, and she wrinkled her nose a little.

Tasuki must have noticed. "You've spent a night with me smelling worse than this," he said stubbornly, looking down at her, "I'm sure you can handle what I smell right now."

Mayumi smiled and nodded. "You didn't do anything wrong, Tasuki," she said, "it has nothing to do with you."

"Oh," he said, sitting beside her, "I guess that's a good thing then."

Mayumi nodded, still playing with her necklace.

"Do you mind if-"

Mayumi looked at him. He seemed genuinely interested, and curious. There was hardly a time when anyone apart from her brother truly listened to her, really tried to understand, and now he had two of them, Kouji and him.

"Is it about Akira?" he asked softly.

Mayumi nodded slowly. "My brother died a year ago today," she said, her voice breaking a bit, "he was murdered."

"Oh," he said quietly. "I'm sorry,"

"It's okay," she said, "it still hurts a bit, and I never got the revenge I wanted."

"So who-"

Mayumi smirked. Curious, aren't you? She thought."My uncle ordered his death," she answered. She smirked at the look of surprise on Tasuki's face. "Yeah, I know, surprising isn't?"

Tasuki said nothing, maybe he didn't know how to react to that kind of situation.

"My brother died saving me," she continued after she was sure that Tasuki wasn't going to say anything. "My uncle and his wife killed our parents, because my grandfather didn't give him any inheritance. He was jealous of father, he got everything, the money, the lands, the riches while all he got was a house. He's lucky he even got a house, my grandma put papa - granddad - up to it.

"But that wasn't enough, Uncle Kito was greedy, very greedy and thought up ways of stealing the riches of our family. But father was smarter than that, until the only option left was to kill them.

"I even saw them do it," she said, choking a bit, remembering the day.

"It's okay, Mayumi," said Tasuki, "you don't have to tell me everything."

Mayumi smiled and shook her head. "It's okay," she said, "I've come this far."

"My uncle had these group of big men with him and they came in the middle of the night, and they killed my father in front of me, but he didn't see me. My brother and mother woke up to the fight, and Akira hid me while trying to stop my mother from going after father. But he couldn't.

"My uncle killed mother," she said, tears starting to form, "and my aunt was watching laughing like a maniac."

Tasuki looked horrified, but didn't say anything.

"Akira and I ran away after that, or more like they found us out, and then forced us out of our own house," she said, smirking a little. "The inheritance belongs to us, and when they realized that, they hunted us down. It took them a while to find us, we hid really well here in the mountains. For two years we were homeless, no one knew we existed. We only went down to the village to visit the graves of our parents, and in the dead the night to make sure that no one would find us. Akira taught me how to fight, how to use my fists and my swords, knives and everything I know, I learned from him.

"Then someone found us out," said Mayumi, again, choking at the thought.

"We fought, naturally, Akira told me to run to leave him behind, but I didn't want to. He fought bravely, with all his heart, trying to protect me and himself.

"But he got killed. And it's all my fault." she said, tears flowing freely. "He died trying to save me, one of the guys was going to stab me in the heart but he blocked me and he got stabbed instead.

"He died in my arms."

Mayumi's tears were flowing freely now as she felt a hand on her shoulder. Tasuki looked extremely grave, all he did was listen and she was happy about it, she didn't think she could continue if he interrupted her. She smiled at Tasuki and wiped her eyes. "Thanks for listening," she said.

Tasuki smiled a small smile and nodded. "It's okay," he said, "and I'm really sorry about your family. If it makes you feel any better, I have a dysfunctional one myself."

Mayumi looked at him. "Really?" she sniffed.

Tasuki nodded. "I'm the youngest and I have five older sisters. Five big, older sisters."

Mayumi smiled.

"They order me around a lot, and scold me all the time," he said, rather darkly, as if angry at the thought. "Then my mother, oh my mother,"

"What?" asked Mayumi, rather curiously. Tasuki's story was getting her away from the topic of her pwn family.

"Well, that's embarrassing, you don't need to know that,"

"But I want to," insisted Mayumi, grinning, "tell me, please."

"Well, when I was a baby..." he began, blushing slightly. "She kind of-"

"Kind of what?"

"Well shesuffocatedmewhilebreastfeedingmethereareyouhappy?" he said very quickly turning a very deep shade of red, thinking that saying it really quickly would make the embarrassment any less.

However Mayumi got every word and she tried not to laugh, but she couldn't help it.

She laughed. And laughed, and laughed.

Tasuki frowned and crossed his arms across his chest. "I don't see what's so funny."

"I - " she said, laughing, "I d-do, I s-s-see it..."

* * *

Tasuki frowned even deeper as he stared at Mayumi who was probably picturing what he was like as a baby. 

Well, he thought, at least I got her to laugh.


	10. fight, again

Chapter ten

Oh man, she would never let him live this down.

He looked thoughtfully at Mayumi, who was on the other side of the camp, tending to some of the wounds that his men acquired after play fighting with each other.

He didn't think that his story was _that _funny, he thought, okay so it was funny the first time that you hear it, but it's been a couple of days, she should get over it already. It wasn't that funny anyway!

Kouji must have noticed the I'm-giving-up-on-that-woman-I-don't-like-women-anyway look. He stood beside said and said, "something on your mind, Genrou?"

"That," he said, nodding in Mayumi's direction, "is what I get with women."

Kouji looked confused. "What do you get?"

"Mayumi!"

"Yeah?" asked Mayumi, who turned towards him. In a few seconds a smile formed in her face as she quickly turned around, no doubt to hide the big grin that would be forming in her face.

"That," said Tasuki, pouting hard, "that's what I get."

Kouji looked amused. "That's what you get?"

"Hmm."

"You told her your baby story, didn't you?" he asked shrewdly.

Tasuki looked quite scandalized. "I didn't think it was _that _funny!" he exclaimed, crossing his arms over his chest. "It was funny the first time you hear it, but it's been two days already and she's still laughing!"

Kouji had a smile in his face. "That's because it happened to you, Genrou," he said, "to you it was a highly embarrassing moment in your life that you would just rather forget and the fact that you still manage to show your face in public is quite the accomplishment."

"I appreciate your support, Kouji," growled Tasuki sarcastically.

Kouji bowed slightly. "You're very welcome," he said, "to the rest of us, who grew up in ways that our mother didn't suffocate us while breast feeding us, this is quite the amusing tale."

Tasuki glared at his best friend, and whipped out his fan and was getting ready to flame him.

Kouji on the other hand, had a very big grin in his face and was hastily forming a white flag to wave right in Tasuki's face.

But before Tasuki can attack or Kouji can wave the flag that came out of nowhere, one of their men came running to them with a very excited look in his face.

"Hey, Genrou! Kouji!" he said, panting a little, "some of the guys saw a bunch of travelers in the main road and it looked like they have a lot of treasure in them!"

Tasuki's eyes sparkled. It's been a while since a bunch of travelers came this way, they must be foreigners, and by the sounds of it, they're loaded.

"What's going on?"

Mayumi had joined them, probably attracted to the excited voice of their comrade. She looked interested, though her fingers were bloody and there was a nice sheet of sweat in her face and forehead.

"Hard time?" asked Tasuki casually.

She did look exhausted. "You have no idea," she said, "those guys really have some deep cuts in them."

Kouji looked concerned. "You can fix it right?"

She smiled and nodded. "Oh yeah, they'll survive," she said, wiping some of the blood from her fingers in her clothes. Tasuki smirked.

"What?"

Tasuki nodded. "Nothing," he said. Tasuki can't help but be reminded that Mayumi was quite different from other girls. For one thing, girls he knew way back when would never ever wipe blood in their dress. They wouldn't even let blood run in their fingers, and here was Mayumi, for all the world to see, a girl, wiping human blood off her fingers and into her clothes.

"Mayumi," said Kouji, "your clothes –"

Mayumi waved it off. "That's no problem," she said, "I can fix that. Anyway, what's up? What's going on?"

Kouji grinned. "There's a group of foreigners traveling in the main road today," he said, "we'll see if we can get richer from them."

Mayumi grinned back. "Okay," she said, "can I come?"

At this Tasuki looked surprised, Mayumi was eagerly waiting their response. Kouji looked at Tasuki, after all he was the leader of the group and it was his decision. He had never had a girl in any of their expeditions before, and he wasn't about to start now.

"No."

Mayumi looked incredulous. "What?"

"I said no." said Tasuki, firmly.

Mayumi's hands went to her hips, causing her clothes to have bloody oalm prints all over them. "And why not?"

"Because I said so, that's why."

Mayumi's eyes narrowed in his direction. "That's a stupid reason."

Tasuki looked at her. Her hands were still in her hips, and there was an accusing look in her face, her eyes narrowed at his direction. "I'm leader here and I say no."

"Some leader you are," she said, crossing her arms.

At this Tasuki frowned at him. "What the hell makes you say that!"

Mayumi didn't answer him. She glared at him, "I can help." She insisted.

"I don't care," he said.

Him and Mayumi glared at each other silently for a few seconds.

"Let me come."

"No."

"I want to come."

"I said no."

"I can help."

"I don't care."

Mayumi and Tasuki glared at each other.

Kouji turned quickly from Mayumi to Tasuki, back to Mayumi and then to Tasuki.

"I don't like you."

"Who says I like you?"

"I want to come!"

"I said NO!"

Mayumi gave him a final glare and stalked off, muttering something about men and their stubbornness.

Tasuki watched her stalked off and muttered, "Women."

Kouji could do nothing but grin.


	11. bad influences

Hi guys, sorry for the long hiatus. I just wasn't sure where this story was going and I thought that I would rather not post any new chapters than to post new cruddy ones. You guys are better than that.

Anyway, I'm back and suddenly more inspired than ever before. I've thought out how to make this thing work perfectly and I even wrote it down so I wouldn't forget!

He-Yan: You actually got me more inspired for this, to tell you the truth. Thanks for the slight idea, and the push, even if you're not completely aware of what you've done.

Schectersona: Thanks, here's the next chapter.

Ryuuka Tamura: Sorry. I will edit this once I finish this, so no fret.

Anyway, here's the rest of the story!

When You Meet Your Match

Chapter 11

Mayumi gave Tasuki one final murderous glare before she huffily turned and started to stalk off where else but the lake. How dare he, she thought, fuming all the way, he acted like she was some common…common…girl! She kicked one of the pebbles that she saw lying on the ground and made it hit the tree with all that she could muster, all the while imagining the pebble to be stupid Tasuki's face.

She can just picture him, walking to the forest acting all high and mighty just because he had made her follow what he wanted her to do. He wasn't going to get away with this, oh no.

But before she could plot out ways to avenge herself from the stupid redhead, she collided into what felt like a wall. She wasn't looking at where she was going. She was just glaring at the ground, her every step had visibly been imprinted in the dirt road.

She had fallen on her butt and was wincing. It was slightly painful. "Ow, who put that wall there?" she demanded angrily and looked up at what she had hit.

It was certainly no wall. It was Kouji.

"Kouji?" she asked.

"The one and only," he replied, holding out a hand. She took it and she was easily pulled up by the blue head in one smooth motion.

"You hit me," she said.

"Nope," retorted Kouji, "you hit me."

Mayumi crossed her arms over her chest and looked at him suspiciously. "What are you doing here anyway?" she asked. "Shouldn't you be with the baka and stealing money from people who have worked hard for it?"

"I didn't know you cared for our victims so much," said Kouji, a smile in his face.

"I don't care for your victims," snarled Mayumi.

"Ah," said Kouji, "then you're just really pissed off with Tasuki."

"What the hell do you think?" snapped Mayumi. She then pushed her way past him, he was very strong. "Do you mind," she said, glaring up at him.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"It's not your business to know where I'm going."

"Yes it is."

"No it's not."  
"Yes it is."

"No it's not."

"You're not going anywhere until you tell me where you're going."

Mayumi glared at him. "Damnit Kouji," she yelled, "who do you think you are? My brother?"

"Technically," said Kouji calmly.

Mayumi cursed the day she ever considered Kouji to be her adopted brother.

"Hmph," she said, stopping in front of him. "Fine, I'm going to the lake. There, are you happy?"

"No," said Kouji.

Mayumi stared.

"No," repeated Kouji.

Mayumi looked at the ground, then back at him. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"You're losing your touch my dear," said Kouji.

"My what?"

"Your touch," repeated Kouji, "you're losing it."

"I am not losing anything!" Mayumi was getting increasingly pissed off with Kouji, almost as much as with Tasuki.

"Yes you are," said Kouji, still with that irritating smile of his, that tells her that he was getting more and more amused by the second. "You're losing it so much that you're resolved to following Tasuki's orders."

Mayumi opened her mouth to retort, but she stopped midway. He was right, she was following Tasuki's orders. My goodness, what was wrong with her?

"See I told you," said Kouji, who was now clearly trying to fight off the grin forming in his face. "You're losing your touch."

Mayumi closed her mouth and then opened it again. "I refuse to talk to you any longer."

"Oh come on, Mayumi, don't be like that," said Kouji, "you can always follow us."

"No I can't."

"Why?" demanded Kouji slyly, "because your darling Tasuki would find out?"

"He is not my darling anything!"

"Yes he is," said Kouji, "I happen to know you enjoyed that kiss he gave you thoroughly."

Mayumi felt her face warm up, she didn't meet Kouji's eyes, which were practically dancing with glee. "Ha, I knew it."

"Follow us," said Kouji again, "he'll never find out. And I happen to know you're an excellent swordswoman. We can always use the backup."

Mayumi smirked and looked up at him. "You're actually asking me to sneak up after you in case you people need help?"

"I know you want to."

Mayumi shook her head. "You're a bad influence on me."

"I like to think I am."

"You're not supposed to be. You're my brother."

"Hey, your brother taught you how to fight. I teach you how to not follow our leader's orders," Kouji smirked. "I'll see you there then?"

"Whatever."

Kouji then ran off waving goodbye before he disappeared from sight.

Really, Kouji had a point, thought Mayumi, placing one of her many knives in the holder by her left thigh, why the heck am I following that stupid red head's order anyway?

_Yeah, he also had a point when he said you enjoyed his kiss thoroughly. _

Mayumi smirked despite herself. He was reeking of alcohol, damnit.

_Yeah, but you still liked it._

Mayumi knew she had a problem when her conscience starts to turn against her.

Fifteen minutes head start was what she gave Tasuki and his gang of bandits. Ten minutes and she's be easily found out. Twenty, well, she may never find them. Fifteen, that's all she needed.

She walked towards the forest, and once she can no longer see the camp, she climbed one of the higher trees. She was a good climber, she had to be, it was cumpolsory, especially since Akira had a habit of hiding himself on top pf the canopy so often. It was easy to spot where the band of bandits were, some of them were hissing way too loud.

She didn't need to show herself to them, she thought, it would just blow of Tasuki's head, and then they wouldn't be able to steal the money from those foreigners. She held back a few trees from them, making sure that she wouldn't be heard in any way.

She then stopped and looked sharply behind her. She could have sworn she heard someone rustling from behind.

She squinted around, and so no one there. Her heart started beating a little faster. She took out one of her knives and raised it threateningly to the trees, in case there were people hiding there.

Just for good measure, she moved to another tree, and rose a little higher, making sure that she doesn't stay in one position for more than half a minute. After a while, the rustling wasn't followed by any other sound, and she made herself relax a little more, all the while watching Tasuki and his thieves closely.

A minute more, and there came the rustling again. She turned sharply again and threw her knife in one of the trees that she was sure the sound came from. The knife, she heard, hit nothing, but trunk and she cursed. She doesn't miss. Only the occasional time, and she was so sure that there was someone there.

She squinted again to the tree that she hit and concluded once again, that she saw nothing. She didn't go for the knife she threw. Instead, she took out another one of her knives and then turned back to the thieves.

Her eyes widened and felt a large palm immediately clamped on her mouth. She made futile sounds, but the more she tried, the harder the force of the palm got, and the harder it was for her to breather.

She couldn't see the man's face, but she was certain that it was a man. He reeked of alcohol, and he was wearing a black cloak with a black hood. She could see a small glint of gold in his face, as he leaned close to her.

"Keep still pretty," he said, "or I'll slit your throat."

Okay, I'm in a tree, she thought hastily, I can just push him off. She cursed at the thought that they were completely far from Tasuki and Kouji, they couldn't hear her struggle. She then realized that the man didn't know that she was holding a knife. With that, she plunged the knife blindly and felt it hit something soft.

The man winced, and the hood came off his head. He was a brusque man, with a beard and a goatee. His face was scarred everywhere and he had dark beady eyes. He didn't scream, she knew that he was a well trained assassin. "You bitch," he declared, and punched her hard in the gut.

She gasped quietly, felt the knife slip away from her hand, down to the forest floor, and then everything went black.


	12. trapped

Hi guys!

Chibi.x.Love: Thanks for waiting. I'm really sorry it took me months to update. Really sorry...here's the new chapter!

Animango: Okay, to recap! Tasuki found Mayumi on the forest in the moutains. She's a daughter of a murdered man in the village at the foot of the moutain. The man who killed her family is her uncle and he's been hunting her down ever since. Now here's the next chapter!

He-Yan: You know, sooner or later, I'll have to make you co-author here. I know that this story is typical of a Tasuki romance fic, and I know that there would be people who read those all the time and get bored of it. I'm not too sure if I'm doing a great job in making mine stand out, the best idea I could come up with was making this fic read like it was written by a person who has the complete knowledge of the English language, already I got bashed for my other fic in Slam Dunk, it did hurt, but I am doing my best. If you or anyone else for that matter have comments that can make this fic different from the ones that are already posted, let me know, and I'll incorporate them in some way. Okay?

Sorry, I'm not really in a cheery mood. The bashing was long and harsh, it didn't leave me angry, just sad...

When You Meet Your Match

"Those guys were right!" cried Tasuki happily, walking on the forest floor, leading his gang, "they were loaded!"

He grinned to his left, where Kouji was. His smile slowly faded when he saw that Kouji wasn't even looking at him. Instead, his best friend was staring at the ground, most likely his feet, and didn't seem to take in a word that he, Tasuki, was saying.

"Oi!" cried Tasuki, nudging him on the shoulder.

"Huh?" said Kouji, looking up and to his side. "Oh, yeah, seriously good job. Spiffing."

Tasuki looked memontarily taken aback. "Excuse me? Spiffing?" he asked. "What the hell is spiffing?"

Kouji smiled at Tasuki. "I heard those foreign people saying it," he said.

"Well then stop saying it!" cried Tasuki, "You don't need a vobabulary lesson from those devils."

"Ooh, vocabulary, big word."

"Shut up."

Tasuki turned to the way they were going, not thinking much about anything except what Mayumi's reaction would be once they reach camp. He hoped that she would feel incredibly jelous, since he knew that she badly wanted to come with them. He could just see it now, her seething eyes, forced to miss out on all the fun, him gloating all night about it…

"Hey, Kouji – " he turned to his friend again, but again to find him in a gloomy state. "What the hell is wrong with you?" he demanded. "Ever since we finished the raid, you've been staring out into space! You didn't even look like you were enjoying the rewards of our efforts!"

"I did!" retorted Kouji, though there was a slight alarmed look in his eyes. Tasuki grew even more suspicious. Before they went ahead, Kouji had disappeared for a few minutes, he didn't say where he was going or what he was going to do, and when he reappeared, there was a mysterious smirk in his face. During their sneaking also, he kept looking everywhere, and didn't focus on their target, making them slip up twice.

"Well then what's the matter?"

"It's nothing, just – oh look we're back!" said Kouji. Sure enough, they were back. Tasuki still looked at him suspiciously, but turned back into the camp anyway.

"Mayumi!" cried Kouji to the camp in general. "Mayumi we're back!"

Tasuki had expected that as soon as they were in sight, Mayumi would come charging into them, or he had hoped that she would come charging into him personally, knocking him down and pinning him under herself, demanding what happened. Then he would remind himself not to let his imagination run away with itself.

"Mayumi!" called Kouji again, "where are you?"

"We're back!" called Tasuki, his impatience growing.

Kouji turned to him, a small smile in his face.

"What?" asked Tasuki defensively. "Is it so wrong to let her know that we're back?"

"Mayumi!" called Kouji again.

"Maybe she's at the lake," suggested one of their men. "She always likes it there."

Kouji nodded and hurried toward the lake. Tasuki then entered his tent, and for one crazy second, he thought that maybe Mayumi was in there, but he was quickly disappointed to see that she was not.

When he had tucked the money safely, he went out to the camp, where he found that Kouji was back. He had a frown in his face. "Well?" he asked.

"She's not there," said Kouji, "I don't get it."

"Neither do I," said Tasuki, "maybe she followed us? I kind of half expected her to."  
Kouji shrugged. "She should be back then by now," he said, "we are."

"Tasuki-san?"

Tasuki and Kouji then both turned to see one of their bandits behind them, a nervous look in his face.

"Yeah?"

"It's about Mayumi."

"Where is she?"

"I don't know, boss," he said, "but we found this on the forest floor –"

* * *

With that, he produced, from his back, one of Mayumi's knives, it had her name on, and its bloodstained hilt. 

When Mayumi woke up, what struck her the most was how painful her stomach was. Her first instinct was to rub her stomach furiously, but she quickly found that doing that would be impossible.

She opened her eyes. At least, she thought she did. She blinked, making sure that her eyes were open. She couldn't see a thing. It was dark. Not the kind of dark associated with a night sky, but the darkness of one closing their eyes. There was hardly a difference between her opened eyes to closed ones.

She also found that she was leaning on a cold wall, and her wrists and ankles were tired. The chain clanked when she tried to move her hands, and her ankles. She cursed. Wherever she was, she was sure she was taken by that man that she stabbed. She hoped that he was hurting bad.

But before she could think of the many ways that she can punish that man for abducting her, the door opened.

She was surprised that there even was a door. She thought that she was trapped in a cement box, and that they were just gonna let her die from hunger or thirst, whichever came first. She of course, knew who did this, who else can be so twisted as to think of something like this anyway.

Her confirmations were held true when she saw who was at the door. At first, she couldn't see a thing. The light that came from the door blinded her instantly, since her eyes were getting accustomed to the darkness. She tried to hide her eyes with her hands, but the clanking of the chains proved once again that she cannot to do that.

Instead she winced and closed her eyes. After a few seconds, her eyes became just as accustomed to the light and she could see the tall imposing figure by the door.

"My dear niece," said the figure in a drawling voice, "welcome."

Mayumi just snarled.

"Welcome," he said again, in that drawling mocking voice, "to my home."

Mayumi glared at the figure as he came closer. It was no doubt, her Uncle Kito. It was the same tall lanky figure, with the same greedy eyes and that annoying sneer in his face. She didn't say anything, she merely glared.

"I hope that you're comfortable?"

She dearly wanted to stab the man.

"Now, now, Mayumi," said her uncle, pressing on her cheeks, making her look up at him. "Surely your parents taught you manners, did they not? Or how about your brother?" Here, Mayumi's eyes narrowed into slits as her uncle sneered victoriously, "Did he just let you go around disrespecting people everywhere?"

She didn't answer him, she merely glared, hoping that he would just keel over and die.

Kito didn't like this, and pinched her cheeks together, drawing her closer, making her shoulders stretch out painfully towards him."You will answer me when I ask you a question, do you understand?" he said, in his menacing voice.

Mira spat at his face.

"You wrench!" he declared, slapping her hard, making her spit out some blood. "You will learn to respect me in my house!"

This time, Mayumi managed to find her voice. "Your house? I will have you know that this is my house!"

Kito leered. "Look at you," he said, "you're helpless, tied up and on the verge of death, yet you still possess that irritating arrogance that you got only from your father."

"That's because this is my house," said Mayumi, with equal leer, "and I must say you've done a poor job of redecorating."

Kito made a grab for something that Mayumi could not see. Pretty soon, however, she felt what he made a grab for.

She cried out in pain as the whip lashed out into the air, hitting the side of her stomach. She looked up at the ceiling, as her eyes started to water. He hit her repeatedly, saying loudly, "This is my house! Mine! Everything here belongs to me! This was never yours nor will it ever be! This is all mine!"

Kito only stopped when he saw the tears that flowed down Mayumi's face. She didn't make a sound, the only indication of any reaction was the silent tears in her face. He dropped the whip, and looked at her, his lips only inches from her own. The thought that her uncle would so something to her sexually was terrifying her more than the whip, and she turned her head away from him.

"Yes it hurts, does it not?" he whispered menacingly to her.

"Kill me now," she said, "just get on with it and kill me."

"But where would be the fun in that?" he asked, turning her head to face him. "Personally, I want you to suffer, do you really think that we'd just let you roam around the forest by yourself? Don't worry my dear, eventually, I will order your death, but right now, I think that I should have some fun with you, ne?"

Mayumi's eyes widened in horror as she turned away from him. He left the room, leaving the door open, and as he did so, another man came in, and grabbed the fallen whip.

Mayumi's cries echoed across the house for an hour. The torturer had left the door open, to make sure that her uncle can hear her painful cries. The sound comforted Kito, and it mulled him to sleep.


	13. help wanted

Sorry if this took long...

Katana Ishtari: Thanks so much! Here's the next chap, and thanks for being patient.

He-Yan: I know he's sick...you know how I got the inspiration? I bought this book, entitled The Most Evil Men and Women in History, they weren't subtle weren't they? Anyway, like all the evil people, he'll get what's coming to him, don't you worry...

Schectersona: Yeah, so did I. Poor girl...

'Chibi.x.Love': Here's the next update!

When You Meet Your Match

Chapter Thirteen

"You did _what?_" snarled Tasuki as he grabbed a fistful of Kouji's clothes and pulled him closer to himself. He had never been really angrconf blood stained knife, alongside with Kouji's conf blood stained knife, alongside with Kouji's confession was sending his blood to its boiling point.

Kouji, who has never seen Tasuki this angry before, was quite hesitant to answer. There was a mad gleam on his eye that looked like he was capable of murder, and he would rather not like be his first victim. "Genrou," he pleaded, "calm down. I said I was sorry."

"Sorry's not going to bring Mayumi back!"

"Killing me won't either!" snapped Kouji back.

Tasuki glared at him for an extra ten seconds before letting him go. Kouji massaged his neck slowly, looking at Tasuki, a slight pleading look still etched in his face.

"WHY THE HELL DID YOU HAVE TO TELL HER TO FOLLOW US?" shouted Tasuki, with every intent to pour out all his anger on his friend.

"And you think she wouldn't have done so?" asked Kouji, his voice rising as well.

"IF YOU HAVEN'T SUGGESTED IT, THEN SHE WOULDN'T HAVE THOUGHT OF THE IDEA!"

"SHE WOULD HAVE, SHE WANTED TO COME WITH US, SHE WOULD HAVE FOLLOWED US EVEN IF I DIDN'T SAY ANYTHING!"

"BUT YOU JUST HAD TO COAX HER OUT AND LOOK WHERE SHE'S END UP!"

"I DIDN'T LEAD HER ON!"

"YES YOU DID, AND THANKS TO YOU, SHE'S PROBABLY DEAD NOW!"

"WELL YOU'RE NOT DOING A VERY GOOD JOB OF PLAYING THE HERO SHOUTING AT ME INSTEAD OF SAVING HER!"

Tasuki opened his mouth to retaliate, but found himself not being able to retort back on Kouji's comments.

Kouji took a deep, possibly calming, breath. "Look, Genrou," he began, "when I suggested that Mayumi follow us, I didn't mean for this to happen."

"You knew though!" snapped Tasuki, wagging his large fan at him.

Kouji cocked his head to the side. "Knew what?"

"Don't give me that confused look," snorted Tasuki, "Of course you knew!"

"Knew _what_?" repeated Kouji, becoming more and more confused.

"Knew that people were after her!" Tasuki stamped his foot in frustration.

"I did?"

Tasuki glared at him.

Kouji felt like he was going to laugh. He didn't know why, but he managed to get a grip of himself and once again, reestablish the seriousness of the situation. "I didn't know that she was being followed," he said, calmly enough.

Tasuki blinked once, then twice. "But, but she told me that people were after her, and if she told me then –"

Kouji shook his head.

"She didn't tell you?" asked Tasuki in a whisper.

Kouji shook his head again.

Tasuki knew the seriousness of the situation, and he knew that he has to do something about it, and that he really should get a move on, but another part of his brain, the romantic, irrational, falling-for-Mayumi part of his brain was shouting out another phrase, mostly in jubilation rather than an order.

_I know more about Mayumi than Kouji does. Yeah, take that, and that, and that!_

"Genrou," said Kouji loudly, waving a hand in front of his face.

"Huh?" said Tasuki, blinking again.

"We have to get a move on," he said, "You know, save the damsel in distress."

Tasuki nodded.

"So," said Kouji, not being able to hide a small smile in his face, "you know everything. Where do we go?"

* * *

Mayumi woke up from what felt like five minutes of sleep, and immediately bumped her head on the stone wall. She didn't dare make a sound though, as the sound that woke her up from her uncomfortable sleep was the slam that eminated from the door opening to let the sunlight and a certain man in. 

Kito walked regally towards her, in small sliding steps. He walked like he was royalty and although her head was throbbing with pain, she just couldn't mask the disgust that showed in her face.

"Good morning, Mayumi," greeted his uncle softly. He smiled at her. If she hadn't known any better, she would have thought that it was a sincere smile of an uncle who cared very much for his niece, but she did know better, and she wasn't fooled for one second. "Did you sleep well?"

For an answer, she spat on his face.

Kito didn't waste any time punishing her for this particular offense. The smile was quickly wiped off his face. He grabbed a fistful of her hair and then banged her head once on the wall.

Mayumi stifled her cry of pain. She couldn't possibly know what she looked like right now, but she knew she wouldn't look good. She could feel dried blood, her own, all over her face and she saw it on her arms (now that there was light to see). Her clothes were heavy and wet, and her hair was sticky and heavy.

She didn't cry out because she has learned, just from one night of torture, that the harder she cried out, the harder the whip would lash on her. Her torturer, whoever he was, was masked, and he whispered everything that he was going to do with her. She cried out in the beginning, but after a few hours of the whip, she managed to feel numb enough to hold her silence, until she finally was knocked unconscious from the blood loss. She thought that she would have been better off dead, but one thought, through all those hours, kept her will to survive.

_Tasuki will come and save me._

The thought came out of the blue, and even more surprisingly, it first made its appearance during the torturing. She was still shouting out her cries at that time, then the thought came. It calmed her, kept her from panicking and losing her sanity and stopped her from begging to be killed then and there. As the sentence rang onto her head over and over, her cries became less and less until she finally managed to stay silent.

Silently, as the whip lashed all over her body, she would chant the sentence over and over. Her eyes were blank, and her words weren't heard over the lashes, until she was finally drifted into unconsciousness.

_Tasuki will come and save me._

"So, Mayumi," said Kito, looking into her eyes, and she was glaring steadily back, though her eyes were blank and unreadable, "you survived. My men thought that you died last night."

Mayumi didn't answer back. She merely continued to glare with her blank eyes. It unnerved Kito. Mayumi was a woman of many words, he had learned that of having to deal with the little bitch ever since she and that idiot brother of hers were little. Though he was a little uneasy, he didn't show it, and he merely sneered, and pinched her cheeks together. "Too weak to talk my dear?"

"Not on your life." Mayumi's voice came out hoarse, but it still possessed the strength needed to make the line work.

"So you are alive," said Kito softly. "I would have expected as much."

"Why? So you can kill me yourself."

"Ha, if you're lucky!" cried Kito. "No, I think I'll have one of the guards kill you."

"You already have the blood of my parents and brother in your hands, why not have the complete set?" asked Mayumi, though her voice was unsteady, the mocking tone was not lost to Kito and it wasn't to his liking at all.

Kito smiled at her. "I already have everything that I want," he said, "this is mine now, as it rightfully belongs to me –"

"Yeah, right."

"YOU WILL NOT INTERRUPT ME!" Kito screamed and slammed her head once again to the wall.

Mayumi didn't cry out, but she did feelfresh blood coming out from her head.

_Tasuki will come and save me._

Kito still has a fistful of her hair, and he pulled her close to himself. "You have no right to speak to me disrespectfully," he said menacingly, "I am the master of this house, and if I say so, I can have you killed, your body cut up and thrown into the forest for the wolves to eat."

"So why don't you?" asked Mayumi with a shaky leer.

Kito grinned evilly. "I will," he said, "eventually. But right now, I want you to suffer."

With that, he slammed her back to the wall, the chains holding her wrists clanging, and left the room.

Another man entered. Big, burly and ugly. The evil gleam in his eyes set Mayumi to what she expected to be another round of whip lashing and the horrifying experience on being slammed onto the wall.

Like the man before him, he leaned in and whispered everything that he was going to do to her.

"N-n-no…" she whispered, trying to back away, but there was no room.

_Tasuki will come and save me…_

The man began to rip off her bloodstained clothes.

_Tasuki will come and save me…_

"TASUKI!"

* * *

Fivemiles away, Tasuki came to a grounding halt. 

Kouji stopped, too, and turned back to his friend. The rest of the bandits were following behind them quickly, and they were nearing the foot of the mountain. "Genrou what is it?"

Tasuki didn't answer, looked at Kouji once, and sprinted the rest of the way down.

_I'm coming, Mayumi, hang on, I'm coming…_


	14. rescue

Hi guys, I'm back. Sorry for the delay. Thanks to all who reviewed! I didn't mean to be mean with the cliffhanger, please read on!

When You Meet Your Match

Chapter Fourteen

The stitch that was forming in Tasuki's abdomen was starting to sting him. In fact, it had been stinging him since he had sprinted the entire five miles from the foot of the mountain to the village below.

"Genrou, slow down!" shouted Kouji behind him, but he didn't hear. Right now, there were things that are far more important.

_Mayumi, get to Mayumi._

He could sense that something was horribly wrong. He imagined the worst things when he thought of what that snake of an uncle of hers was doing to her, and it only infuriated him more and made him run even faster. He wished that none of the things that he was thinking of would ever come true.

And none of it would ever happen, not if he could help it.

He only stopped when he saw the outskirts of the village. It was quite a small village, there weren't any people around the road, probably because most of the houses had been abandoned. Right now, he didn't care to know why. He just needed to get to Mayumi.

There were a few houses in their midst and Tasuki was looking at each one when Genrou had finally caught up with him.

He was panting loudly, catching his breath in big gulps. "How," he said, slowly, then stopping again to catch his breath. "How are we - gonna - find where they're hiding her?"

Tasuki looked around. There were a few houses. Most of them were identical, save for the one near the end of the road. It was a large house, and it didn't have signs of delapidation like the rest of the homes in the village. He squinted to the house. He saw signs of movement in there.

"That one," Tasuki pointed to the farthest house. "That's where she is."

"How do you know?"

"I just do," he insisted. There was such a determined finality in his voice that Kouji didn't question him any further.

Tasuki was beginning to move forward when Kouji held him back. "What?" he asked impatiently.

He hesistated for a moment before he spoke. "We have to think this through, Genrou." he said reasonably.

Tasuki looked incredulously at Kouji. Did he just ... what the hell ... is he _insane?_ "Kouji," he said menacingly, "just in case you didn't notice, Mayumi needs me. _NOW._"

"Mayumi needs me too!" said an indignant Kouji, "but if we get caught on the way there, who's gonna save her then, huh?"

The rest of the bandits were coming out of the forest.

"Especially with them on our tail?" added Kouji.

Tasuki looked at the bandits behind. He cursed inwardly, wondering why he let them come along anyway. Kouji had convinced him to do it, reasoning that they could use the backup. Having a large group with him virtually made it impossible for them to sneak inside, but thinking about things like this right now was costing them time, time that they didn't have and desperately need. He looked impatiently and irritably at Kouji. "What do we do then?"

"Don't worry," said Kouji, "I have a plan."

* * *

Mayumi, despite being weak and terribly exhausted, still trashed around. She wasn't about to be raped by this lug, no, never, not if she has anything to say about it. 

Her trashing had finally caused the chains in her ankles to break loose from the cement wall. When it did, she didn't scream in triumph, but instead kicked the big guy on top of her in the groin.

He gasped in pain and stumbled backwards. Mayumi then gasped for much needed air in the semi-darkness, and looked at her attacker and smiled victoriously.

"You're gonna pay for that, you bitch," he snarled, and started to approach her again.

She gulped hard and wondered what kind of torture was going to be imposed on her again when she saw him grab for the whip again and thus begun to lash at her with all his might.

At first she didn't make any sound, biting her tongue so hard that she felt blood coming out. She swallowed that blood and continued to bite her tongue, until she could take it anymore and started to gasp out in pain. The whip had caused her clothes to come off her torso, as it had already been ripped by her attacker. She felt the raw whip on her chest, her waist, her gut...

Her eyes were unfocused, and glazed as she stared at the wall. Her unfocused disposition had caused her cries to stop, but the pain was still there. Fresh blood was beginning to ooze from her chest and stomach, down to her thighs and legs. She vaguely saw the deep cuts in her chest caused by the whip and heard the laugh of the big man, though it sounded as though it came from a far away place.

_Is this what it's like to die?_ she thought, _It doesn't seem to be so bad. The pain starting to leave, I can't feel it anymore. This must me dying. Did Akira feel this way when he died? Then he didn't suffer, that was good. Though, still, I wish I could have seen Tasuki again. _

_I really thought he would save me, maybe he will, but I'm dying now. But ... won't he save me? I really thought he would, he wouldn't let me die like this, would he? I thought he liked me, I like him, I guess I'll never no, if I die... _In her hallucinations, she could see Akira, and she wasn't really surprised, she expected him to be there. _Akira, brother..._

No. Don't die, said Akira

"What?" she croaked out loud. The lasher didn't seem to notice that she spoke.

He's coming, he said again. Don't you dare die.

The pain was starting to increase in intensity again. _But, she protested, I can't handle this any more, and I want to see you and mother, and father._

It was as if granting her wishes, her parents were right next to Akira, one on each side.

You can't join us yet, honey, her mother said.

Handle the pain, her father added. Just don't die. He's coming for you.

_He's not coming._

Yes he is, said Akira. He's coming. You'll let him down in you die.

_I can't take this anymore..._

Yes you can. Hold on. He loves you, he's coming.

_He loves...me?_

He'll be here any minute. Do not die.

We love you, honey...

Mayumi barely registered the sudden amount of light that was pouring in from the door. Akira and her parents were gone. She didn't registered the sudden halt from the lashing she was receiving. Just one single thought kept her alive now.

_I can't die. He's coming._

"Mayumi!"

Someone was calling her from somewhere far away. She didn't know who it was, or why they were calling her. She blinked slowly. Her unfocused eyes were painful. A shadow was then cast over her body. She looked up, but didn't know who the man was. He was covered in some sort of metal thing. It must be one of the guards, she thought, they've come to kill her in front of Kito.

Her hands flopped down to the side. She tried to stand up but she couldn't. She tried again. It didn't work. They've come to kill me, she thought, I'm free, I have to get out of here.

"Mayumi!"

No, they can't take her. Hands gripped both her arms, as she began to trash about. "No," she said weakly, "I can't die."

"Mayumi!" the voice cried again. "Snap out of it!"

"Huh?" she asked weakly. She blinked, her unfocused eyes shut at the light pouring into the room. "What the -"

"Mayumi," the voice was the same still, but much more softer now. Mayumi looked at the person in front of her, her trashing had now ceased as she blinked into focusness.

"It's okay," said Tasuki, "Kouji's here, _I'm_ here, you're gonna be okay, I promise."

Mayumi felt tears running down her face. Tasuki had loosen his grip on her, and when he did, she used what remaining strength she had and flung herself onto Tasuki, holding onto him for dear life, like she was drowning and the only means of survival was him.

"Don't let go," she begged, "please, don't let go..."

Tasuki kissed her neck as he held her tight. "Don't worry," he said, "I'll never let you go ever again."

* * *

Not the end! Remember, Kito's still alive! 


	15. aftermath 1

Hi guys, I'm back.

SophieStar2: Thanks for reading, here's the next chapter. Hope you didn't wait for too long.

Schectersona: Thanks for thinking it's cute. Here's the update

caspercat22: aw, it's your favorite. yay!

jen: Merci!

Kristall: Hi, how do you do the bandit dance? Can you teach me?

Katana Ishtari: You're welcome!

Sorry, I'm not as cheerful as I ought to be. Switzerland lost their world cup bid a few days ago, and I'm still not over it kasi e. Sniff, they lost to _Ukraine_. Can't believe it, and they lost to PENALTY SHOOTOUT! When it was _clear _that Switzerland should have received at least one penalty shot! Barnetta was so tripped in the penalty box by one of the Ukrainians! How unfair, curse you referee!

Okay, that's out, on to the story!

* * *

When You Meet Your Match

Chapter fifteen

Tasuki took off his disguise, one of the guard's coats, and wrapped it around Mayumi's naked upper body. She gave him a small smile, a smile that wasn't returned by Tasuki. He looked quite distressed and annoyed with something. Mayumi thought that he looked like he was struggling with himself.

"What's wrong, Tasuki?" she asked croakily.

She was still being supported by Tasuki. When they tried to make her stand once she was free of the chains, her knees collapsed. She winced in pain at that time and they have been resting on the floor for a few minutes. Kouji decided to take out his revenge of taking his 'sister' by knocking the lasher senseless.

"I should have been here sooner," said Tasuki in a hollow voice.

"No, Tasuki -"

"Yes, I should have, and you know it," interrupted Tasuki, looking at her, "if I had come here sooner, you wouldn't be beaten up at all."

"Tasuki-"

"It's okay if you hate me," he interrupted again. "I know that you would."

"Listen to me -"

"I know, I really let you down and you don't deserve to be treated like this -"

"Please, Tasuki, don't -"

"And I should have been here sooner, and you hate me and -"

Mayumi had decided that the best way to make him stop talking was to kiss him.

Kouji had pointedly looked away, and in an effort to have something to do, he trampled on the unconscious lasher.

Mayumi broke the kiss, a kiss that Tasuki returned by the way, and stared at Tasuki. "Does that answer your question?" she whispered.

Tasuki looked back at her. "So you don't really hate me?"

"I'm gonna go out for lookout," said Kouji suddenly. He got bored of beating up an unconscious man. "I'll yell if I see someone."

Tasuki looked awkwardly at Kouji and almost wanted to beat him up when he gave him a rougish wink. Mayumi didn't notice any of this as she absent mindedly nodded and rested her head in Tasuki's chest.

"Can you move?" asked Tasuki.

"Not really much," she answered, giving him a small smile. "I know that you're planning a daring escape involving us running through the guards and all, but I can't stand let alone run." She smiled again. "Sorry."

"There's nothing to be sorry about," said Tasuki, "we'll just stay here until you feel like you can stand again."

"That can take a while."

"If I get bored, I'll carry you out of here."

"Then you won't be able to fight."

"Can you see now why I'm willing to wait it out?"

Mayumi laughed, and then winced. The muscle movement had hit the nerves that were swollen around her waist.

"Don't make any sudden movements," said Tasuki nervously.

Mayumi smiled at him and nodded.

They stayed silent for a few minutes. Tasuki silently scrutinized Mayumi's condition. She was resting her head on his shoulder, her eyes closed. Her face was full of small cuts and bruises, and her hair was sticky and wet with what felt like her blood. Her body, what he saw of it, was full of sharp long cuts evidently made by the whip they were using on her. But what infuriated Tasuki the most was seeing Mayumi half naked tied up to the wall. Many searing images had gone through his mind the moment he saw Mayumi without clothes waist up, and he had not dared asked if she had been violated in any way, fearing that he would be able to hear the worst.

This was the reason he was beating himself up for not coming any sooner. He felt that he was too late to stop the attacker from raping her, and he had not yet asked for confirmation of his thoughts.

"Mayumi," he began. He had to know.

"Hmm?"

"When I saw you," he began, "you were naked."

Mayumi raised her head and looked at him. He looked at Mayumi's expectant face, the range of emotions she can show in her face was thankfully not hindered by the many cuts that were in her face. She can still look both innocent and wickedly amused at the same time. "Yes, I was," she answered.

"Well, um," said Tasuki, who was struggling for the right words to say, "did, um, he, um, you know -"

"I wasn't rape, Tasuki," she said, deciding to put him out of his misery, "you came just in time."

Relief, warm glorious relief spread all over Tasuki. His shoulders slumped back on the as he held onto Mayumi tighter. He didn't seem to think that saying 'oh, good' would suffice what he was feeling right now, so he didn't say anything. He just held Mayumi tighter.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?"

* * *

Mayumi looked past Tasuki and saw in the frame of the door hr uncle, Kito, with a mixture of supressed rage and evilness - there really is no other word for it - in his face. Mayumi and Tasuki both stood, they had no other choice. Tasuki supported Mayumi as she stood, looked worriedly at her, and after making sure that she was okay, or as okay as she could ever be, he turned his attention to her uncle. 

Mayumi had never seen him so angry before. Not even when he was ticked off with her.

"So you're Kito," said Tasuki coolly, "the idiotic excuse for an uncle."

Before Kito could answer, a little boy passed through and stood next to Kito. He couldn't have been older than five, as he looked up at Kito, then at Tasuki and Mayumi and then back to Kito.

"Ah, Mayumi, I believe you haven't seen your cousin," said Kito evilly, pushing the boy in front of him. "This is Yori, my son."

Mayumi almost choked at his words. Finding her voice, she said the only thing that came to her mind. "You mean you actually _reproduced?_"

Tasuki bit back a laugh, as he looked at her. She managed to give him a small wink and despite her painful disposition, still managed to look smugly at Kito, who was shaking with anger.

"Who are they, father?" asked Yori, "and why is she badly hurt?"

"This is a matter that you are not to deal with Yori," Kito said sternly.

"Shouldn't we take care of her?"

"I said, this has nothing to do with you, Yori!" said Kito in a sterner and louder voice. The boy promptly closed his mouth and went away quickly.

Mayumi looked curiously and sympathetically at the boy for a second before he disappeared.

"I'm glad to see you haven't managed to corrupt your son," Tasuki was saying.

"Corrupt?" asked Kito, "He will be just like me and his mother."

"Evil, manipulative bastards?"

"You call it that," said Kito menacingly, "I call it rising through the ranks."

"By killing those on top of you."

"You have a sharp tongue for a bandit, boy."

"And you don't deserve one."

Kito opened his mouth angrily for a remark, but closed it again and looked to his side, at the hallway.

He looked at Tasuki and Mayumi in a satisfied smile and said, "Let's see how sharp your tongue can be now that you'll see this."

With a wave of his hand, two guards came into view.

"Kouji!"

Between them was a trashing Kouji. "Lemme go!" he was saying, trying to pry of his arms from their grip. One of the guards grabbed a handful of Kouji's hair and pulled back his head. Mayumi gasped as she saw a small thin line - made by a knife - drawn across Kouji's neck.

"So, you _do _know him then," said Kito satisfyingly. "The guards saw him lurking about ahead of me, and they snuck up on him and grabbed him before he can make a sound. To his credit though, he didn't pass out."

Kito then smiled. "I saw him, I must admit I thought that it was Akira, your brother," he smiled became even nastier. "But of course, your brother's dead." Mayumi, without realizing it, had dug her nails into Tasuki's arms. "I saw his body, and for good measure, I cut off his head when you were gone."

Tasuki held onto Mayumi tightly because she was on the verge of lunging herself at Kito. Tasuki couldn't blame her of course, he was more than willing to rip this rotten excuse for a man to pieces.

"But he does look remarkably like Akira, doesn't he?" mused Kito lazily. He then grabbed one of the guard's swords and pointed its hilt at Kouji's neck. "See? I even marked out where I'm going to cut his head, just like your brother's."

"Tell me, Mayumi," he said, looking at her, "what must it be like? Losing your brother, and your - from what I have heard - 'adopted' brother in a short period of time. It must be _devastating._"

Tasuki glared at him, as Mayumi's nails dug deeper into his skin.

"Let him go," snarled Mayumi.

"Oh, I can't possibly do that," said Kito lazily, "not when you're in the safety of your boyfriend's arms."

"Let him go," said Mayumi, "and I'll do what you want."

"Mayumi - NO!" cried Kouji, who's head was pulled back even more.

"No, Mayumi," said Tasuki, "I won't allow it."

"Of course you wouldn't," said Kito, his eyes gleaming, "but Mayumi had never really followed rules, has she?" He then pressed the sword into Kouji's skin. "You know what, I don't really care for you anymore. I'm not about to let any of you three come out of this house anyway. I should have killed you Mayumi when I had the chance."

"You were too cocky for your own good."

"Yes, that's true, but no matter," he said, "I still have the last laugh. You three don't have anywhere to go, anyone to help you, you're all gonna die a slow and painful death here, and I will enjoy every single minute of it."

As Kito raised the sword and was about to throw it down to Kouji's neck, Tasuki and Kouji both yelled "NOW!", and all hell broke loose.


	16. escaping, then deciding not to

When You Meet Your Match

Chapter Fifteen

When Mayumi first heard both Tasuki and Kouji yell what seemed to be a signal, the first thing that she felt was herself being pushed by Tasuki into the wall of her prison. Then, though she can hardly believe it, the two guards that were holding Kouji down suddenly let him go and launched an attack on Kito.

Then the rest of the bandits came in.

Mayumi knew this because they were crying out loud as they attacked. You know, battlecries. And of course, they were fighting on Tasuki's side.

One of Tasuki's men had grabbed Kito arm, the arm holding the sword. Kouji was still down. The men must have done their job a little to well, and he was still rubbing his head and the back of his neck furiously. Mayumi could have easily blended into the wall, and could have just decided to wait it out, but after careful deliberation, and an accident involving a sword hitting the wall and almost hitting her, she decided to crawl away slowly, and cautiously.

Kito's real guards have arrived, and they were much to busy fighting Tasuki's men to notice her trying to crawl out. She made a beeline for Kouji, who was near the door.

"Kouji," she whispered, when she was close to him. "Are you all right?"

He nodded, and stood up. He was watching Tasuki, who was in a tussle with one of the guards. He had not yet produced his paper wolves or fire from his fan. He was much to busy dealing with his sword. "The guys pulled on my head too hard," he said, smiling down at her.

"You planned this whole thing out, didn't you?" she asked, moving a little to avoid being hit by a sword. Whether the sword was from an enemy or not, it was hard to tell.

"Yep," he answered, proudly. "There were a lot of us, and an ambush seemed like the best thing." Kouji looked serious, this time. "You better get out of here," he said, "there are a few of our men waiting outside. Go there, they'll take care of you."

"I wanna fight too!" she cried in protest.

"Yeah, in that condition?" asked Kouji, who was now practically pushing her out of the door, "No, go now."

"But-"

"No buts."

"But –"

"I said, no buts," said Kouji again, "now go. Tasuki will be out in a minute."

"No he won't."

"All right, two minutes," said Kouji, "GO!"

Mayumi, finding it completely useless to fight him any longer, nodded and stood up. It was painful. The cuts in her legs that have dried during the small amount of time that she was lying with Tasuki was stinging once again, her sudden movement making it open. Some were bleeding, and she could feel the slow trickle of blood in her legs.

The hall she was walking was deserted. It seemed that the entire guard was needed to fight Tasuki's men. They won't stand a chance, she thought with a slight satisfaction.

She had not walked this hall for two years now, and it seemed so familiar to her, yet, somehow, different. She knew why it was different. In the times that she was here, this hall, along with the rest of the house was not decorated elaborately with colorful silk sheets embedded with jewels and such. Now, it seemed as if the walls itself was made of jewels and the finest silk. It had lost its homely appeal, and instead, Kito had turned it into something like himself, elaborate, boastful, and – as she found that it was the only way to describe the state of the house now – greedy.

She tried to run out the house, but the faster she moved, the more painful her wounds become. Though slightly uneasy to know that her only option was to walk, she did anyway, but did prepare herself to scream bloody murder in case she finds herself face to face with anyone that would try to kill her. Namely Kito.

She cannot say that Kito had not taken care of her house. But she would not like to live here any longer. Even if it was possible to reclaim her house back from that snake of an uncle of hers, it would never be the same. She doubted if there were anything left in the house that was completely familiar to her and at the same time, untouched by her uncle.

A turn on the left would lead her to the front of the house, and eventually to the garden and out the gates, where Kouji said there would be people helping her, Tasuki's men, who would take care of her, and wait with her for Tasuki to come out.

Tasuki had not given her any indication that he was planning an attack at all. It must have been part of his plan, not to tell her, in case they were being heard. Or maybe he was just as caught up in the moment as she was and completely forgot the fact that he had to tell her about the plan and instead just sat there and kissed.

She smiled at the thought, and even laughed silently, then she winced. Man, those cuts are painful, she thought.

Though she knew that this was hardly the house that she knew anymore, she couldn't help but look around. She felt herself getting more and more pissed off at the thought of all the changes that Kito had made to what was supposed to be her house, and as she looked in one room, she felt herself freeze.

There, in the middle of the room, on top of a large marble table, sat a sword. It was old looking, with a golden hilt elaborately designed with a phoenix. The blade was a shiny steel, without a trace of rust in it. It looked like someone took very good care of it.

Mayumi gasped as she recognized the sword.

It was her brother's.

Her eyes traveled the entire length of the sword. She felt herself moving forward into the room. She looked at the entire perimeter of the room. The room it seemed had been solely dedicated to this sword and this sword only, as the only lighting in the room was solely dedicated to illuminating the weapon.

As Mayumi moved closer, her heart began to beat faster and faster, both in heartbreak and anger. This was her brother's sword. The sword he used when he and her ran away together. The sword he used when he was trying to protect her.

The sword Akira had that didn't stop him from dying.

Kito took it after he died.

It might even be the sword he used to cut Akira's head off.

Mayumi was shaking now, and the pain that she felt suddenly became numb. She couldn't feel it anymore. The only thing that she could feel was the white hot anger that was coursing through her body.

She felt tears in her eyes, when she looked at the table more closely. Below the sword, almost hidden in the shadows, was a small gold necklace.

Mayumi reached out her hand and took it. It was a simple gold necklace, with a simple gold pendant. The pendant was made of gold, and made up of several Chinese letters.

It spelled Mayumi.

Numb from anger, and adrenaline rushing through her veins, she took the necklace, and wore it around her neck. It clinked confortably next to her own necklace, which had her brother's name on.Wiping the tears of her face, she took the her brother's sword.

Cutting a piece of fabric from the clothes that Tasuki gave her that were from one of the guards, she wrapped it around some of her deeper wounds. She didn't even flinch when some of them started to sting. Right now, she couldn't care less.

Sword in hand, she turned around and walked out of the room.

Kito's going to die tonight, she thought, and I'm gonna make sure he dies in my hands.


	17. uh oh

Sorry for the long delay you guys. I've been really busy with enrolling for school and everything.

When You Meet Your Match

Chapter Sixteen

Tasuki was having the time of his life.

He was now so laidback in fighting with all of the guards that he thought that this shouldn't be this easy, and someone should really step up to the plate and really challenge him.

The reason for this easiness is that he knew that Mayumi was now safe. A few minutes ago, amidst fighting two guards at the same time (he plunged his sword into one of the guards and bonked the other one with his fan), he saw at the corner of his eye, Mayumi crawling towards Kouji, who was near the door. They talked for about half a minute, and then he distinctly heard Kouji ordering Mayumi to escape. She protested, and when he did, he cried out a small growl of frustration that went unnoticed by everyone save by the guard that he was fighting, mostly because when he let out that growl he had also plunged the sword in the guard's stomach. In the end, he was able to relax, because for once, it seemed that Mayumi was able to take an order. He saw her leave the room, slowly, but deliberately.

And that was when the easiness in his fight began.

As another guard went down to his sword, he saw that the room was getting more and more roomy. On the off chance that he had a second to spare, he managed to look around. The floor was slightly sticky with the blood spilt. Even he didn't escape without any bruises and cuts. One of the guards had managed to punch him in the cheek, and another was able to produce a deep cut in his arm.

Kouji was the one with the liberty of killing of the last of the guards. Some of them were still alive, and they were writhing on the floor. Tasuki and his gang were robbers, not murderers, and as much as possible, they would sent all their uncontrollable rage towards those who really deserved it.

Mainly Kito.

Tasuki would have dearly loved to get his hands on that man, and strangle him with his bare hands. He didn't need a sword, he would just go and wrap his fingers around that man's scrawny neck and watch his struggle for air.

Unfortunately, the moment he shouted the signal, and while he was moving forward to Kouji, a swarm of guards had appeared before him and his gang, and he had no other choice than to fight these men before he can get to Kito.

As Tasuki looked down on all the men down, he frowned at the one closest to him and then let his eyes wander to the rest of the injured or dead men.

Kouji had looked towards Tasuki by now. He had a grin on his face. He too felt the exhilaration and andrenaline that one usually feels when one fights for one's life. But unlike Tasuki, he didn't grin or smile during any of the fights, but kept a serious and almost deadly face. Now that the fight was over, he can now present that grin in his face, now that he was able to keep himself alive.

When he looked at his best friend though, his grin faded a little to a smile. "Er, Genrou," he said slowly, walking up to him, "you realize that we won right?"

Tasuki nodded absent mindedly, glaring at one of the fallen guards.

"So why do you have that frown in your face?"

Tasuki looked up at him. "What frown?" he asked, frowning.

Kouji pointed at his face, a bemused expression on his own. "That one," he said, "honestly Genrou, when you were fighting the guards, you were grinning, and now that we've defeated everyone, you're frowning. Is there something wrong with you?"

Tasuki crossed his arms over his chest. "There is nothing wrong with me, baka!"

"Then why are you so angry?" asked Kouji incredulously. He didn't understand. "We beat the guards, Mayumi's safe with the rest of our guards and Kito's – "

Tasuki turned to him, and glared. "Yes, Kouji, Kito," he said, "where the hell is he?"

Kouji gulped. Uh – oh.

* * *

Kito, it had transpired, decided that while the rest of his guards were fighting the bandits, he should make his escape out of the prison now.

Whether he wanted to admit it or not, he was a coward. But just because he was a coward, it doesn't mean that he was stupid. He had a knack for manipulating people to do whatever he wants them to do, and to get whatever he wants.

Unfortunately, his tactics had never worked on his father or any of his family. His father saw him for what he truly was: a greedy manipulator. It wasn't that his father didn't love him. He left Kito enough to be comfortable, but it wasn't enough for him, especially when he saw what his brother and his freaking wife were getting. And to top it all off, he actually went off and reproduced.

He wasn't about to let his brother get away with everything and he left with nothing. He was going to get what he wanted, and what he wanted was everything that his brother's got.

Now, with the help of a bit of poison and swords, he got everything. He had a son, who was going to grow up looking up at him, a wife, and all the riches in the world. There was only one snag.

Mayumi.

By law, Mayumi would still have a claim in this house and everything that's in it, but he knew that after seeing everything that he did with this house, she wouldn't have it. But that wouldn't stop Kito from hurting him. She was of his brother's blood, and that alone was a reason why he should get rid of her. But he wasn't stupid enough to kill her in front of her boyfriend, or boyfriends. For all he knew, she was a slut through and through anyway.

He turned at the bend, and halted.

A small smug smile then formed in his face.

Mayumi was about 25 meters away from him, with a sword in her hand. He looked at her up and down, and surveyed the damaged that he had managed to inflict in a couple of days.

Her hair was formed in small clumps, thanks to the blood that oozed from her head. Near her glaring eyes there was a small trickle of blood flowing. Her clothes were stained red and her legs were wrapped in pieces of her clothing, and those were stained too.

"Mayumi," he said, calmly, "what a pleasant surprise."

Mayumi didn't say anything, merely glared and step forward. Kito didn't see her wince or give any indication that she was hurting, but he knew she was, and he was satisfied.

Of course, he would be more satisfied when she was dead.

Wrapped around her neck, he saw two gold necklaces. He knew what they were. He had the pleasure of ripping one of those necklaces from her brother's neck when he killed him. It didn't bother him that she has it now, what bothered him was that she was holding her brother's sword in her hand.

"This ends here, Ktio," she snarled.

"You should learn to respect your elders, Mayumi," replied Kito coolly, "particularly, those who are your relatives."

"I have no respect for you, nor you deserve it!" She shouted and moved a step closer.

Kito, defenseless took a step back. He wasn't suicidal. He knew that he had to do something, and something quick, or risk getting his head cut off. He tried what he knew he was good at: manipulation. "Come Mayumi," he said, "would you really kill me? You are not a murderer."

"The world would be a better place once I kill you." she replied back, taking another step closer.

Kito should have known better than to try and manipulate our hero. He glared furiously at her. "You are too much like your father, girl!"

"You didn't know my father!" she screamed back. "Prepare to die!"

"Mayumi!"

* * *

Mayumi, distracted turned around. She was in a lot of pain, although her resilience inwanting to kill Kito prevented her from showing any such emotion. As she turned around, she knew that she shouldn't have, because it only takes a few seconds for everything to go wrong for her.

She knew what was going to happen, and all that she thought did happen. In the few seconds that she turned around, Kito had managed to run to her, grabbed her hand, take her sword, and place it at her neck.

In front of Tasuki.

"Mayumi what the hell are you doing!" tiraded Tasuki angrily, glaring at her and Kito at the same time.

"What the hell does it look like!" she answered back, then wincing in pain. The cold hilt of the sword was pressed against her neck.

"Shut up!" shouted Kito over the two of them. Mayumi couldn't look up at him, without the sword drawing blood, but she knew that he was wearing a smug smile directed at Tasuki, whom she had full vision of.

Behind Tasuki was Kouji, who was wearing the same intense hatred look that Tasuki had for Kito, but every now and then, he would look at Mayumi, with an assuring look that everything was going to be okay. Only, she hoped that Tasuki would be the one who was shooting her reassuring glances.

However, Tasuki wasn't the one who could get distracted. He knew that if he looked at Mayumi, he would constantly worry, and won't be able to think of how he could save her. Obviously he couldn't use his fan, as that would mean that Mayumi would get burned too. He had to think, and be clever on his next move.


	18. Tasuki's plan

Hi guys! Sorry again for the long delay of the last chapter. I won't let you down, now that I have inspiration for this again! Thanks!

When You Meet Your Match

Chapter Seventeen

"So, boy," said Kito smugly, sneering openly at Tasuki, "what are you going to do now?"

Tasuki gritted his teeth and felt that if he was going to grit it any further, he might just break his teeth off. He was glaring at Kito so hard that his whole body was shaking and he felt that he might just explode any second.

"Let. her. go." he snarled, trying to keep calm.

"I'm afraid I can't do that," said Kito coolly, "in fact, you should be the one who should be leaving now, since you have absolutely no business here."

"She is my business," answered Tasuki back.

"How touching," said Kito indifferently, "too bad I have to kill her now."

Mayumi gasped as Kito pressed the sword deeper into her neck. Tasuki moved a stepped forward as he saw that the sword had produced a cut and her neck was already bleeding, but Kouji was able to stop him.

"What?" he whispered angrily at Kouji. "In case you haven't noticed, she's dying."

"We can't go any nearer," whispered Kouji back, "he might kill her."

"I see you do have brains in your operation, boy," snarled Kito nodding towards Kouji.

Kouji glared at him. "Wish I could say the same for you."

Kito pressed the sword into Mayumi's neck again. "You do not call this brains?"

"I call it cowardly."

"Let's see how you call it when all her blood seeps slowly out of her body," snarled Kito.

"Don't you dare!" shouted Kouji.

"On the contrary, I will dare," replied Kito. He then turned to Tasuki, who was staring at him calmly. "What are you staring at boy?" he demanded.

Kouji also turned to Tasuki, and he frowned. His best friend was eerily calm, almost as if he wasn't there at all. He was staring calmly at Mayumi who was looking back at him, a hint of confusion mixed with pain in her face. She didn't mouth anything to him nor did she make any motion that she understood what he was doing.

Tasuki however, didn't seem to notice.

"Genrou," whispered Kouji to his friend, trying hard not to make his mouth move. "What the hell are you doing?"

Tasuki didn't answer him. He just continued to stare at Kito in that calm way.

"What are you staring at, boy?" snarled Kito once again, sword still pressed in Mayumi's neck.

Tasuki remained silent. The only visible move that was seen by any of them was in his eyes, which had averted from Kito to Mayumi.

Mayumi, Kouji saw, clearly didn't have any idea what was going on in Tasuki's mind. The questioning look seemed permanently etched on her face, but at the same time, the slight wincing was also not lost in his eyes. The blood that fowed down her neck to her clothes was beginning to flow faster and he thought that if they weren't going to do anything soon, she's really going to die.

"Genrou," whispered Kouj again, "we have to do something. Now."

"I know," whispered Tasuki back, which took Kouji by surprise because he didn't expect it, "relax, I have a plan." With that, Tasuki raised his arms, which were holding three pieces of paper each.

Kito narrowed his eyes. "What the hell is that suppose to be?"

"This," said Tasuki calmly, with a bit of a sly smile, "will be part of your death sentence."

Kito laughed loudly, and the two boys saw that his pressing of the sword in Mayumi's neck eased up a little bit, only this caused the flow of blood away from her body to become faster. "Those pieces of paper is suppose to kill me?" he mocked. "Now I'm absolutely terrified!"

"Oh, you should be," said Kouji, "you should never judge, Kito."

"And I'm sure that those will be out for my blood," said Kito roughly. He stepped back a few steps, and pushed the sword again in Mayumi's neck.

Mayumi, Kouji saw, remained silent during these entire time. She had never seen Tasuki use these weapons before, so like her uncle, she had no idea what to expect. She looked at the paper in Tasuki's hand, but didn't betray any hint of emotion. However, it didn't escape Kouji that Mayumi was getting increasingly pale. _Come on, Genrou, whatever you have to do, do it now!_

"They will be after your blood," said Tasuki calmly, "let me show you." With that he threw the paper in the air, and it became six large wolves.

Kito, much to his surprise took a few quick steps backward, the shock was clearly visible in his face. They both heard Mayumi gasp in surprise. "What is this sorcery?" shouted Kito, who pointed the sword at the wolves, then back to Mayumi's neck, back to the wolves and back to Mayumi's neck.

"I told you," said Tasuki calmly, stepping forward now, "they are your death."

"This is magic!" cried Kito, "they are not real!" He was getting almost as pale as his niece.

"Trust me, bastard," said Tasuki back, for once showing anger. "They are very real. They will kill you."

"NEVER!"

The wolves were pushing Kito into a corner. Kito didn't want to believe that they were real, after all, nothing can possibly come out of thin air, yet here they were, large, vicious and snarling, saliva drooling out of their mouths. Kito did the only thing that he can think of to save his life.

He pushed Mayumi into the wolves' path.

* * *

Mayumi didn't know which was better, dying in the hands of an evil uncle, or dying by slowly being eaten by a pack of wolves.

She figured that it would be a tie.

She really expected something like this would happen. It was something that his uncle would realy do, but that doesn't mean that she can't be surprised by it, she was. She let out a gasp as the force of her uncle's push sent her face first into the ground. She was pale, she knew, because her face felt extremely cold. The warmth of her body was leaving her in the same pace that her blood was flowing through her skin. She vaguely heard the shout of her name by someone, before she was launch into semi-unconsciousness.

* * *

Kito watched as her niece fell into a wolf's paw. He smiled. Sure, she wasn't going to die in his hands, but she was going to die a cruel death nonetheless, plus he could escape as the wolves feed on her mangled body. The two boys were no problem, they are both injured, they can easily be killed.

What Kito wasn't hoping for was that the wolves completely ignored Mayumi's body.

"Wha-?"

Here Tasuki came forward again. "See, the thing here is," he began, "they are in my control. They do not want the girl, they want you. They will kill you, unless you do something smart, which looking at you right now, seems highly impossible. Kill him. NOW!"

The wolves all jumped on Kito. Kito, out of reflex, slashed his sword wildly, hoping that he could get most if not all of the wolves and injure them as much as possible. What he didn't expect was that the moment his sword hit them, they all turned back into paper.

He was so surprised that he didn't see Tasuki run toward him with a sharp right hook especially for him.

* * *

Tasuki was angry.

Nobody liked Tasuki when he gets angry.

Right now, all his anger was directed to one person and one person alone, that is if you can call that man a person.

The best way to release anger is through punching, or so he believed. He didn't say anything as he grabbed Kito collar, pushed him into the wall and began to rain down on him one punch after the other. He punched his face, his gut, his chest. He heard the cracks of bones that he caused, but he didn't care. This man deserved to die.

Tasuki didn't think that he can ever feel this angry towards anyone, now he knew he could, and all because of a woman. He didn't even like women until now, well, he still doesn't like women, he likes a wo_man._ That was dfferent, he thought.

Kito's face was already swollen, and he was spitting out blood. Tasuki, unable to control any of his emotions right now, grabbed his neck and wrung it tightly. He could hear Kito choking but he didn't care, the fact that Kito could still utter a sound was enough to enrage him even more. He wanted to crush that voice box, make him bleed from the inside, crush him and give him a slow painful death, the kind of death fitting for someone as evil as this man.

"Genrou, stop it!" he heard someone say, and a hand landed on his arm. "Genrou, that's enough!"

"No."

"That's enough!" cried Kouji again, he recognized who it finally was, "you're going to kill him!"

"That's the point."

"Damnit, Genrou, we're not murderers!" shouted Kouji, now forcibly trying to pry his hands away from Kito's neck. "Mayumi needs you, she doesn't want you doing this!"

Tasuki's arms froze, and he looked at Kouji, "What?"

"She wants you," said Kouji, now able to take Tasuki's arms away from Kouji's neck, "to stop. Go, Kito's as good as dead, he won't hurt her anymore. She wants to talk to you."

Tasuki blinked a few times before he let go of Kito. Kito fell into a slump on the ground, still breathing, but very weak. Tasuki gave him one final glare before turning around and going to Mayumi.


	19. conversation netween lovers

Hi guys, sorry it took a long time. This is not the end yet. Okay? One more chapter to go, I think. I more, maybe an epilogue, we'll see okay? Here you go with the next chapter!

When You Meet Your Match

Chapter Nineteen

"Why does she need to talk to me?" demanded Tasuki to Kouji, but still glaring at Kito, who seemed unconscious.

He didn't see Kouji shrug. "I don't know Genrou," he said, "maybe he just wants you to stop, or maybe she wants to kill him herself, or maybe she just wants to talk to you."

Tasuki looked at his friend, who gave him a comforting smile. "Relax, Genrou," said Kouji, "she's fine, injured but fine, I'll take care of Kito, I'll make sure that he won't hurt anyone anymore."

Tasuki smiled and nodded, and hurried over to Mayumi's side.

Mayumi looked worse for wear. Somehow, she managed to make herself crawl to the wall of the house, resting her back on it, and covered one of her many injuries in her leg. The cut in her neck, Tasuki saw, was covered tightly on her neck with a red cloth, or the cloth turned red because of the blood. The home made bandage did its job though, and the blood stopped flowing down her neck.

Despite the obvious pain that was etched in her face, she managed to give him a small smile. "Hi," she grimaced.

"Don't make any sudden movements," said Tasuki, kneeling down next to her and took a look on the cloth in her neck. "You'll lose more blood that way."

"I don't know if I still have any blood left quite frankly," joked Mayumi lightly.

Tasuki didn't laugh. He frowned.

"What?" asked Mayumi.

"You really shouldn't make any jokes," said Tasuki silently, "this is a pretty serious situation we have here, and we almost lost our lives saving you."

Mayumi looked horrified. "Oh, Tasuki, no!" she cried. "I didn't mean it that way! Of course I'm glad you rescued me, and I am taking this seriously, and I'm happy everyone's alive, and, oh, man I am screwing this up…"

Mayumi looked down on her knees, and mumbled a few more words that despite their short distance from each other, Tasuki was not able to catch, and a few seconds more, she became silent.

Tasuki looked at her. He couldn't see her face, just the top of her head, her hair. It looked hard, probably because of the blood. It was confirmed when he touched it. He took her chin and lifted her face, and he could see her face. Her eyes were downcast, sort of unfocused, and she wouldn't look at him directly. Instead her eyes moved from left to right, and finally, down.

"Look at me," he whispered.

Mayumi looked at him.

"I know you didn't mean it that way," he said, "I'm sorry I made you feel sad."

"I'm sorry I made jokes," she answered back. Tasuki nodded, and Mayumi gave a small smile. She then looked over past his shoulder. Kouji was at the end of the hall, away from them. She was sure that he couldn't hear a word they were saying, a few meters in from of him was Kito, lying on the floor, his arm not bending the right way, and looking rather unconscious. "Is he awake?" she asked cautiously.

"I would've made sure he won't ever be awake, but you stopped me," said Tasuki darkly.

"I'm sure you would have killed him," whispered Mayumi.

"Why did you stop me anyway?" asked Tasuki, confusion on his face.

Mayumi looked at him and gave a small smile. "You're not a murderer, Tasuki," she said, "You're a thief."

"What the hell's the difference?" demanded Tasuki.

"The difference here is that you do not take away lives," she said.

"Yes I can," said Tasuki.

"You can," agreed Mayumi, "but you don't."

Tasuki didn't say anything.

"You may think you are, Tasuki, but you're not capable of murder. I can see it; I know that you're not. You value the lives of people you care about too much that you'd hate to think that there would be people you'd be hurting by killing someone."

"Kito has nobody," grumbled Tasuki, not looking at him.

"Yes, he does," said Mayumi, "he has his son."

"That brat doesn't deserve that man for a father."

Mayumi smiled. "We don't know if the boy, well, my cousin, is a brat. He may be, considering he grew up here, but I don't think he is, remember he asked my uncle if he should release me?"

"I don't buy it," grumbled Tasuki even more.

"You're stubborn."

Tasuki looked at her. He could tell that she was trying very hard not to wince in pain, but she was only half successful. One of her eyes would involuntarily twitch every time she tried to suppress the pain. Nevertheless, Tasuki can't take it out of her that her will power was strong.

"Don't you want him dead?" he asked her quietly.

Mayumi didn't hesitate to answer. "Of course I do."

Tasuki raised his eyebrows at her. "Then why did you stop me?" he demanded. "Your logic eats itself, Mayumi! I can kill him, just watch me!" He made a move to stand up, but was quickly stopped when one of Mayumi's hands, landed on his arm.

"Please, Tasuki," she begged, "no."

Tasuki knew that there was no way he could resist her face, injured or otherwise.

"You said you wanted him dead," said Tasuki.

"I don't want him murdered."

Tasuki raised an eyebrow. "You really have a way with your words, don't you?" he asked.

Mayumi smiled. "As long as it stops you I'm satisfied," she then added, "You are so whipped."

"This is why I hate women."

Mayumi chuckled, then stopped abruptly, and touched her neck.

Tasuki moved forward, looking worried. "I told you, don't make any sudden movements," he said. He leaned on the wall next to her, and Mayumi automatically rested her head on his shoulder. Tasuki wasn't surprised at the action; he was surprised that he didn't feel surprised by the action.

"You care about me too much," she said.

"I care about you enough," he answered back.

"It's too much."

"It's what you deserve."

"I don't think I deserve that much."

"Yeah, you do."

She looked up at him. "Why?"

Tasuki waited a minute before he looked down at her to answer the question. Was this the right time? He can hardly call resting after a violent fight the right time to confess someone's feelings, but in the past he had never had the right moments, why the hell was he even thinking of this kind of (bleep) anyway, he was Tasuki for crying out loud! Stealing from people without any remorse was his specialty, along with metal fans and paper wolves.

"Well," he said, looking at her, "this is the right time."

Mayumi looked confused. "What?"

"I love you."

Silence for ten seconds.

Mayumi looked dumbfounded. "What?"

Tasuki was determined to look into her eyes, although inside his heart was racing very fast. You can freaking do this, he thought, you already said it once. "I love you."

Mayumi looked at him. She blinked once, then again, then again, then again.

"Aren't you gonna say something!" cried Tasuki, turning red quickly.

Mayumi blinked rapidly many times.

Tasuki glared at her.

Then, Mayumi smiled. "I love you too."

Tasuki blinked. "What?"

Mayumi raised an eyebrow.

"I'm kidding," said Tasuki, letting her head rest again on her shoulder. "Now, rest, we'll get back to normal in the morning."

"You think so?"

"As normal as it gets," he said, "together."


End file.
